Once Removed Episode 13: It’s 5 o’Clock: Do You Know Where Your Will Is? A Lesson From Aretha Franklin
SDNY Chooses “Time Approach” to Calculating Lease Termination Damages Collectible Against a Bankrupt Estate
Protecting Your Estate Plan from Challenges: No-Contest Clause Explained
A longstanding and critical incident of a trustee’s fiduciary duty of loyalty is the duty to vigorously defend the trust’s very existence, as well as all its material provisions (hereinafter “existence defense”), unless it...more
Asserting claims derivatively on behalf of an LLC, as opposed to directly on behalf of an LLC member, can be tricky business for even experienced litigators. The requirements for derivative claims have been explored in...more
Keara Waldron and Lindsay H. Sklar discuss the decision by the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in the case of In re Cortlandt Liquidating LLC, which parted with decades of precedent to endorse and apply...more
This newsletter is intended to keep readers informed about developments in probate and fiduciary litigation in Massachusetts and New York. Our lawyers are at the forefront of this area of the law, shaping how it is handled in...more
In Kankonde v. Mankan, an attorney appealed the entry of an arbitration award on behalf of his clients, a doctor and his practice. No. 08-20-00052-CV, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 7040 (Tex. App.—El Paso August 31, 2020, no pet....more
Last week the California Supreme Court used a conservatorship case to clarify how appellate courts should review the sufficiency of evidence when the trial court applied the clear and convincing evidence standard. In...more
Generally, if your will leaves your beloved “all … right, title and interest in and to”, said beloved would receive the entirety of your interest, whether a surface estate, mineral estate, or both. But in ConocoPhillips, et...more
Imagine you bought a house and, a year and a half later, you discovered bundles of cash totaling more than $100,000 that had been hidden away by the deceased former owner. Who would be entitled to the money -- you or the...more
“The attorney client privilege, the oldest among common-law evidentiary privileges, fosters the open dialogue between lawyer and client that is deemed essential to effective representation” (Spectrum Sys. Intern. Corp. v...more
The Probate & Fiduciary Litigation Newsletter compiles recent Trust & Estate cases. Our lawyers are at the forefront of this area of the law, shaping how it is handled in the Probate and Family Court. Goulston & Storrs is the...more
No contest clauses are included in wills and trusts to discourage dissatisfied beneficiaries from challenging the document’s validity. Because enforcement of these clauses results in disinheritance, the California Probate...more
Disinherited Children Lose Challenge to Mother’s Will in New York Surrogate’s Court - Matter of Loe, 2019 WL 657041 (N.Y. Sur. Feb. 13, 2019) - Can disinherited children challenge their mother’s will based on possible...more
If you are a beneficiary in a will that contains a no-contest clause, and you don't like what the will directs, be careful before you question its validity. You just might lose everything....more
Welcome to our first newsletter of 2019! Leighton v. Hallstrom, 94 Mass. App. Ct. 439 (2018) - In Leighton, the Appeals Court vacated a final decree of the Plymouth Probate and Family Court settling an intestate estate....more
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals had no difficulty affirming a district court’s order compelling the executor of an estate to arbitrate his claims based on an arbitration clause contained in an IRA application signed by...more
American courts (including our California state courts), in contrast to courts in England, do not typically award attorneys’ fees to a lawsuit’s “victor.” There are, of course, exceptions to this so-called “American Rule.”...more
In Delgado v. Garza, the plaintiffs sued for breach of a warranty of title, trespass to try title, and other related claims all stemming from a land transaction between an ancestor of the Salinases and an ancestor of the...more
Lowndes attorneys obtained a favorable ruling from a probate court in Lee County, Florida, on behalf of a decedent’s estate; and thereafter, secured an affirmance of the ruling from Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal. ...more
Hall v. Hall, No. 16-1150: Petitioner Elsa Hall and respondent Samuel Hall are siblings litigating against each other in two consolidated cases surrounding the management of their mother’s property and estate. One of the...more
Born in Fresno, Kirk Kerkorian was an Armenian-American who went on to become a wealthy businessman and philanthropist, known for his role in shaping development in Las Vegas. After Kerkorian died in June 2015 at the age of...more
A unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, First Department recently affirmed a ruling by the Commercial Division dismissing causes of action against the ACE Group International LLC (“AGI”) brought by the estate of the...more
The sudden death of Alexander Calderwood, the brilliant but troubled co-founder of the Ace brand of hotels, resulted in some fierce litigation between Calderwood’s estate and Calderwood’s LLC co-member over the nature of his...more
It is a fundamental principle of law that a Last Will and Testament duly signed and witnessed is binding on no one until the person who signed the Will dies. That is to say that a person who signs a Will in say January of...more
We like when families can work out their estate disputes outside of the courtroom. Georgia, for one, embraces the “family settlement doctrine,” where heirs at law can agree to distribute or divide property devised under a...more