Bill Text: NY A07601 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: Relates to the privilege between a personal representative and the attorney to lifetime trustees.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-11-20 - SIGNED CHAP.529 [A07601 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A07601-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          7601

                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      May 13, 2019
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of A. DINOWITZ -- (at request of the Office of Court
          Administration) -- read once and referred to the Committee on  Judici-
          ary

        AN  ACT  to  amend  the civil practice law and rules, in relation to the
          privilege between a personal representative and the attorney to  life-
          time trustees

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Paragraph 2 of subdivision (a) of section 4503 of the civil
     2  practice law and rules, as added by chapter 430 of the laws of 2002,  is
     3  amended to read as follows:
     4    2.  Personal  representatives. (A) For purposes of the attorney-client
     5  privilege, if the client is a personal representative and  the  attorney
     6  represents  the personal representative in that capacity, in the absence
     7  of an agreement between the attorney and the personal representative  to
     8  the contrary:
     9    (i)  No  beneficiary  of  the  estate  is, or shall be treated as, the
    10  client of the attorney solely by reason of his or her status as  benefi-
    11  ciary; [and]
    12    (ii)  The  existence  of a fiduciary relationship between the personal
    13  representative and a beneficiary  of  the  estate  does  not  by  itself
    14  constitute  or give rise to any waiver of the privilege for confidential
    15  communications made in the course of professional employment between the
    16  attorney or his or her employee and the personal representative  who  is
    17  the client; and
    18    (iii)  The  fiduciary's  testimony  that  he  or she has relied on the
    19  attorney's advice shall not by itself constitute such a waiver.
    20    (B) For purposes of this paragraph,  "personal  representative"  shall
    21  mean  (i) the administrator, administrator c.t.a., ancillary administra-
    22  tor, executor, preliminary executor, temporary  administrator,  lifetime
    23  trustee  or  trustee to whom letters have been issued within the meaning

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD11643-01-9

        A. 7601                             2

     1  of subdivision thirty-four of section one hundred three  of  the  surro-
     2  gate's  court  procedure  act, and (ii) the guardian of an incapacitated
     3  communicant if and to the extent that the order appointing such guardian
     4  under  subdivision (c) of section 81.16 of the mental hygiene law or any
     5  subsequent order of any court expressly provides that the guardian is to
     6  be the personal representative  of  the  incapacitated  communicant  for
     7  purposes of this section; "beneficiary" shall have the meaning set forth
     8  in  subdivision  eight  of  section one hundred three of the surrogate's
     9  court procedure act and "estate" shall have the  meaning  set  forth  in
    10  subdivision  nineteen  of  section  one hundred three of the surrogate's
    11  court procedure act.
    12    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
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