Honeedew Investing LLC v. Abadi

Background

Honeedew Investing LLC filed a motion for substitution on November 6, 2023. The motion concerned JP Morgan Trust Company of Delaware, identified as the trustee of Jose Abadi’s trust, potentially becoming a party in place of Abadi.

Legal standard

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 25 governs substitution when a party dies. The court stated that the proper substitute must be either a representative of the deceased party’s estate or a successor of the deceased party. Under New York Estate Powers and Trusts Law § 1-2.13, a trustee is not a personal representative because a personal representative is someone who has received legal authority to administer a decedent’s estate.

The court further explained that a successor may be a distributee of the deceased person’s estate if the estate had been distributed when the substitution motion was filed.

Ruling

The court found that Honeedew had not provided information showing whether Abadi’s estate had been distributed into the irrevocable trust at the time of the motion. Without that information, the court could not determine whether JP Morgan Trust Company of Delaware was a proper successor and therefore an eligible substitute under Rule 25.

Judge Valerie Figueredo directed Honeedew to provide additional information supporting JP Morgan Trust Company of Delaware’s status as a proper successor by May 13, 2024. The order did not grant or deny the substitution motion and did not address the underlying merits of the case.