third party affidavit

[w43qs]

What is the name of your state?
New York

I received a third party affidavit from surrogates court and from a wife of a deceased person for sole distributee spouse asking that I sign this apparently to get further proof that I knew deceased for more than 20 years and the spouse. It also asks in affidavit if they had any children. After she receives this from me they also ask her to submit proof of marriage. Is this normal procedure to get an affidavit from someone when it seems the marriage certificate would be proof enough and the fact that they had children or not could be found perhaps by some other legal means? And if so, is it okay for me to sign this (in front of notary) and send this back to her?

 

[Dandy Don]

Yes it is normal procedure. The court is just looking for an independent witness to verify that this lady was married to this man and also possibly looking for other heirs (you may know about some children or stepchildren that the wife may not know about). Yes it is okay for you to sign it and send it back to wherever the form suggests you send it.

 

[w43qs]

Thankyou for your reply. It makes sense.
However, I forgot to mention in my last post that there was no file number given on this piece of paper even though it supplied a line for a file number.
Does this mean the lawyer handling this has not yet filed this request with the court and will file after receiving it with my signature and then it will be assigned a file number by the court? Or should I only sign once a file number appears on the paper?
Also, I called the surrogate's court and asked about this affidavit I am to sign and they remarked that this form to their knowledge is only used for estates less than 20,000. I know for a fact that the husband's house itself was worth more than that, not to mention his other assets. Is this statement by the clerk or whoever I talked to, true, to your knowledge and if so should this be cause for alarm if in fact the estate is worth far more than this?
Thankyou.

 

[Dandy Don]

The fact that the file number wasn't on there is not very important. It could have been innocently left off or might be filled in at a later date.

Also, since you don't know all of the details about how the house is being handled, you can go ahead and sign the form and return it if you truly want to help your friend get this estate probated. You can ask her your question about the house later on in a phone call or in a letter. It is possible that the way the home is titled means that she automatically gets it as a surviving spouse or if her name was already on the deed, but if the house is not fully paid for yet it is still owned by the mortgage company and would not need to go through probate, or if they are waiting for it to be sold.

 

[w43qs]

I have posted a couple questions prior to this about a third party affidavit in which I am to sign but on the paper it indicates that the widow is a sole distributee spouse. I do want to help this person but at the same time I want to be careful what I am signing. I am assuming a sole distributee spouse means that the wife is the closest heir and that there was no will made by the husband. However, since I am a relative of the deceased, there might be a remote possibility I was named in a will and if I sign an affidavit which says on that affidavit that she is sole distributee spouse, am I in effect signing some kind of waiver confirming to the court that she would be the only distributee of the estate (that is if there was a will)? And I don't know if he made a will.
Also, the widow is 86 years old and I have talked to her and she does not seem interested in wanting to be executor of the estate yet her lawyer wants her to be. Not only is she not interested but I don't think she would always understand what papers she is signing even with her lawyer explaining to her. So in this case would it be better for the court to assign an executor if none was assigned in a will. Would this better serve to protect her?
Thankyou.