Gideon J. Tucker

Gideon John Tucker (February 10, 1826 – July 1899) was an American lawyer, newspaper editor and politician. In 1866, as Surrogate of New York County, he wrote in a decision on a legal malpractice claim against a deceased lawyer's estate: "No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session."^[1]

^ Gideon J. Tucker, Final Accounting in the Estate of A.B., 1 Tucker 248, 249 (N.Y. Surr. 1866). The decedent incorrectly advised a widow with two sons that she had only a life estate in one-third of the rents of her late husband's estate (i.e., dower), and she had settled the elder son's claim against her husband's estate on the basis of such erroneous legal advice. The decedent failed to discover that a newly enacted statute had already given the widow the right to hold, possess, and control all of her late husband's real property and to enjoy the rents, issues, and profits thereof during the minority of the 12-year-old younger son (before he reached the age of majority).

[1] Gideon J. Tucker, Final Accounting in the Estate of A.B., 1 Tucker 248, 249 (N.Y. Surr. 1866). The decedent incorrectly advised a widow with two sons that she had only a life estate in one-third of the rents of her late husband's estate (i.e., dower), and she had settled the elder son's claim against her husband's estate on the basis of such erroneous legal advice. The decedent failed to discover that a newly enacted statute had already given the widow the right to hold, possess, and control all of her late husband's real property and to enjoy the rents, issues, and profits thereof during the minority of the 12-year-old younger son (before he reached the age of majority).

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