On December 5, 2023, the First Department issued a decision in Rappoport v. Nye, 2023 NY Slip Op. 06224, holding that the beneficiary of an estate lacked standing to sue on behalf of the estate, explaining:
Plaintiff is the son of nonparty Seymour Rappoport, who died in June 2015; Seymour, in turn, was the son of nonparty Minnie Rappoport, who died in November 1974 and was the owner of a signed Rembrandt painting. Plaintiff claims that Seymour’s siblings stole the painting from Minnie’s estate, and he seeks its return and a declaration of ownership, or, alternatively, money damages.
Plaintiff lacks standing to bring suit as either the successor administrator or a beneficiary of Seymour’s estate. Although plaintiff has standing in his capacity as successor administrator to assert claims on behalf of Seymour’s estate, the claims he seeks to assert, which arise from the alleged theft of property from Minnie during her lifetime, belong to Minnie’s estate, not Seymour’s. Therefore, they could not have been asserted by Seymour or his estate because Seymour was merely a beneficiary and not a personal representative of Minnie’s estate. Plaintiff’s argument that extraordinary circumstances empowered him to bring suit in his capacity as a beneficiary of Seymour’s estate is not properly considered because it is fact-based rather than a question of law and was not raised before Supreme Court.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).