In re the Estate of Kells

Maximilian Moss, S. This petition filed on April 17, 1959, by a first cousin of the decedent, seeks to supersede the Public Administrator to whom letters of administration were granted on December 23, 1958. The decedent died December 7, 1958. Several hearings thereafter held established the kinship of the petitioner as the decedent’s first cousin and that there are no persons bearing a closer degree of kinship to the decedent.

The discretionary power to refuse to supersede the Public Administrator (Surrogate’s Ct. Act, § 136-w) must be subordinated to the mandatory directions for the granting…