New York County, Surrogate's Court: November 7, 2019

Surrogate Anderson ESTATE OF BRUCE DAVIS, Deceased (18-2903/H) — In this contested miscellaneous application, the preliminary executor of the estate of Bruce Davis asks the court to lift the restrictions on his preliminary letters testamentary and to give him leave to sell real property. Those restrictions, imposed by decision and order of this court dated October 26, 2018, restrain him from selling decedent’s real property. One of decedent’s sons has opposed the application. The guardian ad litem for the infant distributee has no objection to the relief sought. Decedent’s multi-million-dollar estate consists primarily of a closely held business and a townhouse in Manhattan. Petitioner states that the sale of the townhouse is necessary in order to pay the estate’s significant tax liabilities (estate taxes and decedent’s income taxes), as well as to prevent future accruals of penalty and interest on such taxes. Decedent’s son objects to the application without providing the court any basis to doubt the necessity of the sale. In the alternative, he asks the court to impose limitations on the fiduciary’s use of the sale proceeds (he would have it limited to paying estate taxes only) and to require petitioner to post a bond equal to the appraised value of the property. On this record, the court grants petitioner’s application to the following extent: petitioner’s letters are hereby modified to allow him to market the real property and to enter into a contract of sale. The letters continue to be restricted against collection of the proceeds of sale until further order of the court. This constitutes the decision and order of the court. Dated: November 4, 2019.