Re v. Smith

Order, Surrogate’s Court, New York County (Renee Roth, S.), entered November 7, 1996, inter alia, finding respondents in civil contempt, unanimously affirmed, with costs.

*220Respondents, concededly mere bailees of the decedent’s valuable 1936 Mercedes Benz with no legitimate claim thereto, refused to comply with the Surrogate’s order, affirmed by this Court (191 AD2d 327, lv dismissed 82 NY2d 909), that they turn the car over to the estate’s ancillary administrator. Instead, in an apparent effort to acquire the car for themselves, they "contrived” a competing claim thereto by making its existence…