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COMPLAINT NAMING DECEDENT, RATHER THAN DECEDENT’S REPRESENTATIVE, AS A DEFENDANT WAS A NULLITY; THE DEFECT COULD NOT BE REMEDIED BY AMENDING THE COMPLAINT.

The Second Department determined plaintiff’s action should have been dismissed as a nullity. The defendant in this car-accident action had died before the complaint was filed. Therefore the complaint was a nullity. The defect could not be remedied by amending the complaint to name the decedent’s estate:

In this action to recover damages for alleged injuries arising from a vehicular accident, the plaintiff did not commence this action against the operator of the offending vehicle until several months after the operator died. Since “[a] party may not commence a legal action or proceeding against a dead person” … , the action was a nullity from its inception, and the plaintiff was instead required to commence an action against the personal representative of the decedent’s estate … . Moreover, the plaintiff’s attempt to amend the caption of the void complaint to designate the decedent’s estate as the defendant was invalid … . The plaintiff never properly commenced an action against the decedent’s personal representative, and the time within which to do so had expired prior to the defendant’s motion for summary judgment. Krysa v Estate of Qyra, 2016 NY Slip Op 00940, 2nd Dept 2-10-16

CIVIL PROCEDURE (COMPLAINT NAMING DECEDENT RATHER THAN DECEDENT’S REPRESENTATIVE AS A DEFENDANT WAS A NULLITY AND THE DEFECT COULD NOT BE REMEDIED BY AMENDING THE COMPLAINT)/TRUSTS AND ESTATES (COMPLAINT NAMING DECEDENT RATHER THAN DECEDENT’S REPRESENTATIVE AS A DEFENDANT WAS A NULLITY AND THE DEFECT COULD NOT BE REMEDIED BY AMENDING THE COMPLAINT)

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