Watts v. Swiss Bank Corp.

• Citation: 292 N.Y.S.2d 602,30 A.D.2d 791
• Decision Date: 11 July 1968
• Docket Number: MEYER-LANARI and E
• Parties: Sewell S. WATTS, Jr., and I. Manning Parsons, Jr., as Executors of the Estate of Roberta Maccoun Lanari, deceased, Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. SWISS BANK CORPORATION, Defendant. SWISS BANK CORPORATION, Defendant and Interpleading Plaintiff, v. Maria Elenadwin L. Gasperini, Ancillary Administrator with the Will Annexed of the Estate of Aristide Lanari, deceased, Interpleaded Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: New York Supreme Court Appellate Division

Page 602

292 N.Y.S.2d 602

30 A.D.2d 791

Sewell S. WATTS, Jr., and I. Manning Parsons, Jr., as Executors of the Estate of Roberta Maccoun Lanari, deceased, Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. SWISS BANK CORPORATION, Defendant.

SWISS BANK CORPORATION, Defendant and Interpleading Plaintiff, v. Maria Elena MEYER-LANARI and Edwin L. Gasperini, Ancillary

Administrator with the Will Annexed of the Estate

of Aristide Lanari, deceased,

Interpleaded Defendants-Appellants.

Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division First Department.

July 11, 1968.

G. J. Dunworth, New York City, for plaintiffs-respondents.

B. J. Reverdin, New York City, for interpleaded defendants-appellants.

Order entered October 3, 1967, so far as appealed from unanimously affirmed with $50 costs and disbursements to the respondents. See also App.Civ., 292 N.Y.S.2d 205.

All concur except BOTEIN, P.J., who concurs in the following memorandum:

Aristide Lanari and his second wife Roberta maintained a joint survivorship account with Swiss Bank Corporation in New York City. In March 1962, after the death of Lanari, his only child Maria, who was his daughter by his first wife, brought suit against Roberta in France. The purpose of the suit was to enforce in Maria's favor the so-called forced heirship laws of France, which at the time entitled her to threefourths of her father's estate. Roberta appeared in the suit on June 7, 1962. Two days later she died, leaving as heirs three sisters to whom she bequeathed her entire estate except for legacies to children of her butler in amounts insufficient to have any significant bearing on the issues here in contest. The sisters were substituted for Roberta in the French action, they defended it, and it proceeded to a decree in favor of Maria which on appeal by the sisters was sustained. The French courts determined that Lanari was domiciled in France, that the law of France was applicable with respect to his personal property wherever located, that the assets in the joint account were constituted from his personal assets, and that the creation of the account was void with respect to Maria. Shortly after commencement of the French litigation Roberta brought, and after her death respondents as executors of her estate continued, the instant action against Swiss Bank Corporation to recover the property in the joint account. Appellants, Maria and the ancillary administrator c.t.a. of Lanari's estate, were interpleaded, and in their present motion for summary...