In re the Accounting of Batyi

McGarey, S.

The insolvency of this estate poses the question whether a sheriff’s poundage arising from the procurement of a warrant of attachment by the decedent and the vacatur thereof subsequent to his death constitutes an administration expense entitling it to priority or whether it was a debt of the decedent. The factual background, insofar as it * concerns this matter, is reported in Groom v. Jarboe (188 Misc. 808).

When the testator died, the sheriff primarily possessed an inchoate claim or lien against the attached property for his poundage, and secondarily, a contingent claim against…