Demorest v. City Bank Farmers Trust Co., 321 U.S. 36 (1944)

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Demorest v. City Bank Farmers Trust Co.

No. 52

Argued December 10, 1943
Decided January 17, 1944 *
321 U.S. 36

APPEAL FROM THE SURROGATE’S COURT

OF NEW YORK COUNTY, NEW YORK

1. Subdivision 2 of § 17-c of the Personal Property Law of the New York which, where there is no express provision in the will or trust, in respect of salvage operations (uncompleted at the date of the enactment) of mortgaged properties acquired by a trustee by foreclosure or by deed in lieu of foreclosure, prescribes a rule for apportionment of the proceeds between life tenant and remainderman, held -- as against the claim of remaindermen that the statute deprives them of property without due process of law, in that the statutory rule is less favorable to remainder interests than were rules theretofore existing -- not violative of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. P. 48.

2. Decisions of the New York Court of Appeals prior to the enactment of subdivision 2 of § 17-c, held not to have established a rule of property whereby the remaindermen here acquired any vested rights. P. 42.

289 N.Y. 423, 46 N.E.2d 501, affirmed.

290 N.Y. 885, 50 N.E.2d 293, affirmed.

Appeals from decrees, entered on remittitur from the Court of Appeals of New York, which sustained the constitutionality of subdivision 2 of § 17-c of the Personal Property Law of the New York.