Democratic Socialists Win $5.2 Million NYU Retirement Account

A deceased New York University sociology professor’s $5.2 million retirement account will go to the Democratic Socialists of America Inc. based on his 50-year-old beneficiary designation favoring the leftist New American Movement.

David Greenberg, who began teaching at NYU in 1973, named his parents as the primary beneficiaries of his retirement account, with the New American Movement or “any successor thereof” tapped as his contingent beneficiary. When Greenberg died in 2024 after nearly five decades at the school, his parents were no longer alive and the DSA claimed benefits under his account as the movement’s successor.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer sided with the DSA over a competing claim from Greenberg’s estate. The term “successor” — as opposed to more specialized terms like “legal successor” or “successor in interest” — is commonly understood to mean an entity that comes after and takes the place of another entity, which “emphatically” describes the relationship between the New American Movement and the DSA, Engelmayer said Monday for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Engelmayer explained that the DSA was established through the 1982 merger of the New American Movement and the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, with the DSA assuming the assets and debts of both organizations. The relevant evidence “leaves no doubt” that the DSA qualifies as the movement’s successor under the ordinary meaning of the term, the judge said, noting that Greenberg himself was listed as a dues-paying DSA member for as far back as the organization kept electronic records.

Greenberg’s estate accused NYU of failing to “periodically confirm” that the decades-old beneficiary designations remained accurate, pointing out that Greenberg later named his sisters as the beneficiaries of different accounts through the university. The estate presented no evidence that NYU failed to do this, Engelmayer said; nor was the school legally obligated to make “personalized outreach” to Greenberg about his designations.

Schwartz, Conroy & Hack PC represented the estate. Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC represented NYU. Renaker Scott LLP and Kantor & Kantor LLP represented the DSA.

The case is Hecht v. N.Y. Univ., 2026 BL 282767, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:25-cv-03042, 7/27/26.