A fiduciary has a legal obligation to make distributions to the beneficiaries of the estate. But what happens when a beneficiary owes the estate money? Does the law permit the fiduciary to offset the bequest with the debt? Or does the fiduciary have to first make a distribution and then sue the same beneficiary to recover the funds to pay the debt?
As a practical matter, one would assume that an offset is permitted. However, at first blush, the EPTL and SCPA do not appear to address the issue. They provide a beneficiary with the right to compel payment. But they do not expressly provide that a fiduciary may assert defenses to payment (see EPTL § 11-1.5; SCPA § 2102 [4] [“A proceeding may be commenced to require a fiduciary … to deliver a specific bequest or property to a person entitled thereto or to pay a legacy…”]). The only defense in the statute appears to be the timing of the payment: under EPTL § 11-1.5(c), a beneficiary generally must wait at least seven months from a fiduciary’s appointment before demanding payment.
The procedural rules of the SCPA and CPLR nevertheless permit a fiduciary to file an answer and assert defenses when the beneficiary commences a proceeding to compel payment. The fiduciary therefore has an opportunity to explain to the court why the legacy a or distributive share should not be paid in whole or in part (see 6 Warren’s Heaton on Surrogate’s Court Practice § 75.03 [LexisNexis 2019]).
In the answer, the fiduciary should therefore explain that the beneficiary owes the debt and assert this as a defense to payment. This is often referred to as the right to equitable retainer and lien (see Matter of Van Nostrand, 177 Misc 1, 7 [Sur Ct, Kings County 1941] [placing equitable lien upon the beneficial interest of a trustee/beneficiary who had embezzled trust property]; Matter of James, 149 Misc 135, 135-138 [Sur Ct, Kings County 1933]).
This defense is well settled under the case law and rests on sound principles of equity (see Matter of Eaton, 282 App Div 32, 34 [3d Dept 1953]). It is based on “a fundamental equitable principle of surrogate law that no beneficiary may claim any distributive rights from an estate until he has satisfied all of his obligations to it” (Matter of Van Nostrand, 177 Misc at 7; Matter of James, 149 Misc at 135-138 [Sur Ct, Kings County 1933]; Matter of Flint, 120 Misc 230, 232 [Sur Ct, Westchester County 1923], affd 206 App Div 778 [2d Dept 1923]; Matter of Foster, 15 Misc 175, 177 [Sur Ct, Orange County 1895] [holding that a debt is considered an asset of the estate in the hands of the legatee and a satisfaction of the legacy to the extent of the debt]).
