Priority among different letters A person who applies in good faith therefor, and to whom letters are first issued from a court having ju... · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 704. Priority among different letters
A person who applies in good faith therefor, and to whom letters are first issued from a court having jurisdiction to issue them, has exclusive authority under the letters until they are revoked. He is entitled to demand and recover from any person to whom letters are afterwards issued by any other surrogate's court the property in his hands belonging to the estate. But the acts of a person to whom letters were afterwards issued, done in good faith before notice of the letters first issued are valid and an action or special proceeding commenced by him may be continued by and in the name of the person or persons to whom the letters were first issued.
The person who applies in good faith and first receives letters from a court with jurisdiction has exclusive authority until revocation and may recover estate property from a later-appointed representative. ★ A later representative’s acts remain valid if done in good faith before notice of the first letters, and the first representative may continue an action or special proceeding that the later representative began. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 1 — The Surrogate's Court in Plain English; Volume 2 — The Surrogate's Court Procedure Act; Volume 5 — Your Career: Surrogate's Court in Plain English.