Matter of Bosswick

Matter of Cohn 2010 NY Slip Op 03487 [72 AD3d 617] April 29, 2010 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, June 9, 2010

In the Matter of the Estate of Seymour Cohn, Deceased. Mark G. Bosswick et al., Respondents; Paula Ann Hallman, Appellant.

—[*1] Spizz & Cooper, Mineola (Harvey W. Spizz of counsel), for appellant.

Victor & Bernstein, P.C., New York (Donald M. Bernstein of counsel), for respondents.

Order, Surrogate's Court, New York County (Kristin Booth Glen, S.), entered April 30, 2009, which, in a turnover proceeding seeking collection of promissory notes given by respondent Paula Ann Hallman to the decedent, granted petitioners' motion for summary judgment and denied respondent's motion for summary judgment, unanimously affirmed, with costs.

The tax returns and Surrogate's Court documents executed by respondent as an estate fiduciary conclusively establish her ratification of the subject notes, precluding her claims that the notes were the product of duress exerted by one of her coexecutors and that the transfers recited in the notes were actually gifts, not loans (see Joseph F. Egan, Inc. v City of New York, 17 NY2d 90, 98 [1966]; Morad v Morad, 27 AD3d 626, 627-628 [2006]). In any event, as the Surrogate also held, respondent fails to raise issues of fact as to donative intent. We have considered respondent's other arguments and find them to be without merit. Concur—Nardelli, J.P., McGuire, Acosta, Freedman and RomÁn, JJ.