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.
