Metro

Nudge in judge grudge

These two bickering Surrogate’s Court judges now have their own surrogate.

A bitter feud between the Brooklyn Surrogate’s Court jurists has gotten so ugly that a third judge has been reassigned to help them reduce their overwhelming backlog of cases, sources told The Post.

That makes Brooklyn the only borough with three judges handling cases involving estates and wills.

The bad blood between Surrogate Judges Margarita Lopez Torres and Diana Johnson goes back to at least 2005, when Lopez Torres narrowly beat Johnson in the election for the position. Johnson, though, was elected the next year.

“They hate each other,” a court source said. “Their staff hates each other. They avoid each other like the plague.”

“It’s a personality clash,” said another court source. “It’s like oil and water, which does not make for a good administration of surrogate cases.”

Office of Court Administration spokesman David Bookstaver confirmed Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bruce Balter will be “lending his expertise to help dispose of uncontested cases in Surrogate’s Court.” Balter is expected to oversee surrogate cases until March 25 instead of his usual criminal cases.

While Manhattan and Brooklyn have two surrogate judges handling wills and estates, the other three boroughs get along with just one surrogate judge.

Neither Lopez Torres nor Johnson returned calls for comment.It could be a long feud — Lopez-Torres holds her current position until 2019 and Johnson will remain in hers until 2021.