Before the court is a petition pursuant to SCPA 2102 to require the preliminary executors to supply information concerning the assets and affairs of the estate. The court, on its own motion, has submitted the matter for decision on whether the petition should be entertained.

The petitioners herein are Melissa Menz, Peter Bailey and Thomas Marino, none of whom are distributees of the decedent. Rather, they are each bequeathed limited personal property under either or both of the decedent's wills which are on file in the court. Under the propounded instrument, dated March 9, 2012, Peter Bailey is bequeathed the decedent's 1973 Lincoln automobile. Neither Ms. Menz nor Mr. Marino are named in the propounded instrument. In the decedent's prior will, dated September 15, 2009, Peter Bailey is again bequeathed the 1973 Lincoln automobile plus the sum of $10,000.00. Ms. Menz is bequeathed a certain painting and Mr. Marino is bequeathed a dark wood Chinese cabinet and some oriental rugs.

The petition seeks information under eleven separate categories regarding the decedent's real property and six additional categories of information regarding the decedent's personal property and the administration of the estate including, as follows:

(i) A statement of all money in decedent's possession at the time of her death, and the balance today;

(ii) Whether the executors have opened an estate bank account; if so, the account number and the bank where the account has been opened;

(iii) Copies of all bank statements from the inception of the account to the present;

(iv) A list of any stocks, bonds, or other investments owned by decedent at the time of her death, including their description, the face amount of bonds, the number of shares, the date of death value, the current value, and whether any of them have been transferred;

(v) Copies of any mortgages and notes owned by decedent at the time of her death, with descriptions of terms and decedent's interest; and [*2]

(vi) A description of any property, and its value, that was transferred from decedent during the last six months of her life.

Pursuant to SCPA 2102, "[a] proceeding may be commenced to require a fiduciary [to, among other things,] supply information concerning the assets or affairs of an estate relevant to the interest of the petitioner when the fiduciary has failed after request made upon him in writing therefor" (emphasis added). Here, the petitioners' interest in the estate is limited to specific items of personal property and, in the case of Mr. Bailey, a cash bequest under the prior will. The petitioners are neither distributees nor remainder beneficiaries. The bulk of the information the petitioners seek in this proceeding is not relevant to their interests in the estate and its production would be unnecessarily burdensome on the estate. The court therefore declines to entertain the petition (SCPA 2101[1][b]), without prejudice to the petitioners to bring a proceeding more closely tailored to their interests in the estate if such information is still not forthcoming from the preliminary executors.

This decision constitutes the order of the court and no additional order need be submitted.

Dated: July 30, 2013

EDWARD W. McCARTY III

Judge of the

Surrogate's Court