In re Snide

I agree with the Appellate Division that the Surrogate’s Court had no authority to reform the decedent’s will and am of the conviction that the willingness of the majority in an appealing case to depart from what has been consistent precedent in the courts of the United States and England will prove troublesome in the future. This is indeed an instance of the old adage that hard cases make bad law.

Our analysis must start with the recognition that any statute of wills (now articulated in this State at EPTL 3-2.1) operates frequently to frustrate the identifiable dis-positive intentions of the…