The Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board v. Leon Snow v. The Estate of Clark Flesher

When is a duly enacted law of the State of New York not part of “the laws of the State of New York”? One would think that the answer is never. But the majority disagrees. In the majority’s estimation, a law passed by New York elected representatives is not part of the “laws of the State of New York” if those legislators modeled the statute on a common-law rule specifying a particular jurisdiction’s laws as controlling the disposition of a person’s property upon death. Thus, the majority holds that, where a governing-law clause in a death or retirement benefit plan declares that the “laws of…