Q: What is the rule in NYS for recaptioning of lawsuit when Plaintiff dies?
Plaintiff died. Only letter of testamentary presented by Plaintiff Fiduciary. No other document presented to the Court. Judge verbally approved the substitution of Plaintiff, however, no recaptioning of case occurred. Should this have been done, and should the recaptioning note the name of the Fiduciary and her title as fiduciary of the Plaintiff's Estate? The case is not a probate case but a partition action, and the death occurred after the decision for partition was granted. The Fiduciary also has not submitted the Plaintiff's Estate EIN# for tax purposes when the property (which is an unprobated property of another estate) is sold and a final tax return for that asset needs to be filed with IRS noting distribution to the Plaintiff's Estate. The original Plaintiff and Defendant are heirs-at-law of the partitioned property. I believe Fiduciary is trying to evade the knowledge of distribution from IRS and the Plaintiff's probate. Fiduciary also sole beneficiary of Plaintiff.
A: A motion should be filed re-captioning the case. However, it is not required to maintain the case, as long as the court is OK. The matter can move forward. Eventually, the title company of the buyer will require proof of authority to convey, proper tax payments, etc., as a matter of title, but that is not your issue as a defendant.
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