In re the Estate of Bernice B.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Renee R. Roth, S.

This proceeding to appoint a guardian (Mental Hygiene Law *150art 81) for a putative contestant of the will of Bernice B. was tried before a jury. The case, apparently the first article 81 jury trial in a Surrogate’s Court, required the court to charge the jury on a substantive area of probate law not covered by the Pattern Jury Instructions for article 81 proceedings.

The competing interests at stake are also quite unusual. On the one hand, an interest that is the beneficiary’s sole known source of support may be destroyed by the beneficiary herself if she is…