§ 1127 Disposition of records after 10 years

This rule lets the public administrator throw away old case files once 10 years have passed since an estate was fully wrapped up. The public administrator handles estates for people who die without anyone else available to manage their affairs. Once that job is done and a decade goes by, the office does not have to keep holding onto the paperwork.

The rule also protects the public administrator and New York City from getting sued or blamed for destroying these records. So if someone later wants old documents from a closed estate and those files were properly destroyed after the 10 year period, the city and the public administrator cannot be held responsible for not having them anymore.