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Surrogate's Court, New York County, November 28, 2006
APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL
Blank Rome LLP, New York City (Eve Rachel Markewich of counsel), for Amir Ali Mehdi Khazaneh, proponent. Greenberg & Oser LLP, New York City (Josiah Greenberg of counsel), for Kaveh Khazaneh, objectant.
OPINION OF THE COURT
Kristin Booth Glen, S.
This case, with objectant's contention that "mental competency and testamentary capacity are distinct concepts," and his argument that an otherwise fully competent testator must also know the "extent or value of his estate," presents an opportunity to revisit the law of testamentary capacity after a decade and a half of change in the way the law understands and evaluates competence and
capacity.[FN1]
Facts and Procedural Posture
The testator, Abbas Khazaneh, was a wealthy Iranian businessperson who fled his homeland during the revolution of 1978, ultimately settling in this country with his wife Fatemeh Dorry Mehdi Khazaneh and four children, one of whom, Amir Ali Mehdi Khazaneh, is the proponent in this contested probate proceeding. Abbas had another child, Kaveh Khazaneh, born of an Iranian
marriage

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