SCPA 704 · Article 7. General Provisions Relating to Letters
Priority among different letters
Text — Law content up to date as of September 18, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 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.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of September 18, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/SCP704
- Text hash
- sha256 c0af72b0bde5feb71f553194ae3b4922ad532b3efa042a3386bc815b011f8309
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.