As parties prepare for trial before the Surrogate’s Court, a question that oftentimes arises is whether the parties have a right to a trial by jury. The right to a jury trial is anything but universal in Surrogate’s Court proceedings, and, in fact, does not exist in a proceeding concerning the removal of a fiduciary. This blog post explains why no right to a jury trial exists in a Surrogate’s Court removal proceeding.
The Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act (“SCPA”) provides that a party is only entitled to a jury trial in a proceeding “in which any controverted question of fact arises as to which [the] party has a constitutional right of trial by a jury, in any proceeding for the probate of a will in which a controverted question of fact arises, and in any proceeding commenced after the death of the creator of a revocable lifetime trust to contest the validity of such trust in which a controverted question of fact exists” (see SCPA § 502[1]). Under Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution of the State of New York, a constitutional right to a jury trial only exists in those “cases in which it has heretofore been guaranteed by constitutional provisions” (see N.Y. Const. Art. 1, § 2; Matter of Mastro’s Will, 100 Misc2d 866, 867 [Sur Ct, Suffolk County 1979] [citations omitted] [“The result of (that) constitutional provision, enacted in 1938, is that the constitutional guarantee of a jury trial continues only to the degree that such jury trials were authorized prior to the 1938 Constitution”]).
Based upon the foregoing, in Matter of Ruggiero, the Second Department held that a party did not have a right to a jury trial in a removal proceeding (see Matter of Ruggiero, 51 AD2d 969, 969-71 [2d Dep’t 1976]). There, the petitioner sought a trial by jury in the proceeding she commenced to remove the decedent’s sister as the fiduciary of the decedent’s estate (see id.). The Surrogate’s Court and Appellate Division both found that a jury trial was unwarranted, mindful that there is no right to a trial by jury in a removal proceeding under the New York State Constitution or the SCPA (see id.).
In light of the foregoing, a party preparing for trial in a Surrogate’s Court removal proceeding should plan to proceed before the Surrogate. Such a party does not have a right to have its trial heard by a jury.