MHL ARTICLE 81 - New York State Unified Court System

it is noted that the niece lived in California and the aunt lived in NY. The niece visited regularly and
had already been handling her aunts financial matters as POA.
Matter of Bowers, 164 Misc.2d 298; 624 N.Y.S.2d 750 (Surr. Ct., NY Cty., 1995)
A foreign guardian of nonresident AIP who is sole distributee of estate of New York domiciliary may
proceed in Surrogate's Court to obtain letters of guardianship and acquire standing to apply for letters
of administration in estate. Surrogate's Court enjoys limited jurisdiction over Art. 81 proceedings
where impaired person has beneficial interest in estate. Although Article 81 does not specifically
confer jurisdiction on Surrogate's Court where beneficiary of an estate is neither resident of nor
physically present in New York, 81.05 governing venue, provides that where AIP is not present in
State, residence shall be deemed to be county in which property is located. Thus, petitioner will not
be required to proceed in two courts.
Matter of Sulzberger, 159 Misc.2d 236; 603 N.Y.S.2d 656 (Sup. Ct., NY Cty., 1993)
Where AIP had resided in France for many years; and pursuant to French law, conservators of his
property had been appointed, daughter of AIP, and one of the conservators appointed by French
court, sought order appointing her as ancillary guardian in New York to deal with AIP's substantial
financial holdings in this state. Court noted lack of guidance in statute and directs counsel for
petitioner to find out whether foreign courts procedure provided same protections as NY, such as
court evaluator, in order to determine whether court should honor foreign court finding of incapacity
or appoint court evaluator now.
st
In re: Robinson, 272 A.D.2d 176; 709 N.Y.S.2d 170 (1 Dept., 2000)
Court appoints co-guardian who is living out of the country temporarily, stating that modern
transportation and communication will enable him to serve adequately.
(iv) Counsel or court evaluator as guardian
Matter of GLM (Gloria Loise Meyers), NYLJ, 5/6/03, p. 19, col 2 (Sup. Ct., Kings Cty.,)
(Leventhal, J.)
Court finds extenuating circumstances under 22 NYCRR 36.29(c)(10) to appoint the court evaluator
in a proceeding as the guardian for a 14 year old girl where there was $3.5 million involved, where
the parents were financially unsophisticated and also divorced acrimoniously, where they both had
a good relationship with the court evaluator and where the court evaluator was an experienced elder
law attorney whose office was near the home of both parents and the child. Of note is that the court
did not identify why he could not find someone other than the court evaluator to appoint under the
circumstances.
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