FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2022
Contact:
Alison Arden Besunder
212-695-8100, ext. 289
[email protected]
Goetz Fitzpatrick Defeats Motion to Dismiss Petition to Invalidate Trust
NEW YORK, NY—Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP recently defeated a motion to dismiss GF’s clients’ petition to invalidate a trust and transfers to a trust disinheriting GF clients’ from their father’s estate.
Our client is one of four children and the only daughter of a decedent who died at the age of 101 and ½ years old. The father had four prior wills, including one as recent as 9 months before he died, all of which left his sizable estate equally to each of his four children and naming them all as co-executors. Decedent’s daughter and his granddaughter were both excluded from the home or from visiting her father by Decedent’s son, with whom he lived and was his caretaker. Four months before his death, the decedent signed a new will, leaving his daughter only $100,000, and the remainder to his three sons. A month later, decedent supposedly signed a 12-page revocable trust echoing the will provisions leaving only $100K to our client. Both documents were signed with an “X.” The son then transferred all the father’s assets into the Trust using a “springing” power of attorney. Decedent died three months later.
In addition to filing objections to the probate of decedent’s will, Goetz Fitzpatrick petitioned to invalidate the Trust and bring the assets back into the probate estate. The three brothers moved to dismiss, claiming that our client lacked standing because she would inherit $100K under either the will or the trust; and that she failed to sufficiently allege fraud because our client did not rely on any false statements (an element for proving a claim of damages for fraud but not necessarily to invalidate a document). The Surrogate rejected the son’s arguments as presuming validity of both documents, neither of which had yet been established at the initial pleading stage. The Surrogate denied the motion to dismiss, noting that the petition alleged sufficient facts that, if established, would state causes of action to invalidate the trust and the transfers to it.
The case was especially interesting from a historic viewpoint in that the father lived on a farm in Warwick, NY which is one of the oldest continuously owned family farms in the US; also, by marriage, the family lineage includes Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Henry Seward.
Alison Arden Besunder represented the interests of our client along with associate Andrew P. Herrera and Senior Counsel Sean Flanagan.
Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP has been offering clients insightful solutions throughout the New York Metropolitan area since 1967. The firm provides its clients with expertise in the areas of Construction and Real Estate, Trusts & Estates Administration & Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Corporate, Bankruptcy, and Labor & Employment. The firm’s office is located at One Penn Plaza, Suite 3100, New York, NY 10119, Telephone 212 695 8100, [email protected], www.goetzfitz.com. You can learn more about Goetz Fitzpatrick on: LinkedIn | X (Twitter) | Soundcloud | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram
