A resource for lawyers and the public in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for information on will contests, trust disputes, guardianships, conservatorships, elder exploitation, fiduciary duty claims, and other probate litigation disputes.
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In Tarnawa v. Goode, the NH Supreme Court (Hicks, J.) affirmed that the Superior Court has concurrent jurisdiction with the Probate Court to partition real estate, even though the owners previously inherited it in a NH probate proceeding. Congratulations to Joshua Gordon who represented the prevailing party. The decision is in accord with the general […]
In apparent conflict with an order by the NH Trust Docket in Swenson v. Christo previously discussed by Andrea Schweitzer, the NH Federal District Court (DeClerico, J.) in Doyon v. Porter held that “New Hampshire would recognize the tort of intentional interference with an inheritance.” Thanks to Greg Moffett who kindly brought Doyon to my […]
In N.C. Dep’t of Revenue v. The Kimberly Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust 588 U.S. __________ (2019) , a decision eagerly awaited by tax and trust and estates professionals, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, in a 9-0 opinion authored by Justice Sotomayor a lower court decision, holding that the imposition of State tax on undistributed […]
In In re Trust of Mary Baker Eddy, the NH Supreme Court (Donovan, J.) decided an important issue of first impression, namely, the requirements for standing of a potential beneficiary of a charitable trust to file a court action relative to the administration of the charity. Charitable trusts are non-profits, including hospitals, colleges, public service […]
In a careful and thorough consideration of the evidence, the NH Trust Docket ruled that NH does not have jurisdiction to probate the estate of John Chakalos and consequently the pending “slayer rule” action against his grandson Nathan Carman must be dismissed. The decision is a major victory for Nathan and his legal team as […]
In settling an estate/trust dispute, parties generally want their settlement agreement to, not only resolve the issues in contention, but also protect against the initiation of future litigation among the parties. Settlement agreements almost always include broad mutual releases of claims and sometimes also set forth contractual promises that no further litigation will be initiated, […]
While much has been written in the press about the sensational allegations in Santilli v. Carman, nothing has been written to my knowledge about the interesting issues of probate law it presents. As the case progresses, Alexandra Cote and I will post on some of these issues. In Santilli, which is before the NH Trust […]
When settling a parent’s estate, the divvying up of the the tangible items often bedevils family members with children arguing about who gets the Thanksgiving soup tureen, a wedding ring, or the power tools. Items that could be bought at yard sales for pennies can have immense sentimental value and be the source of unending […]
Forum selection is an important decision in fiduciary litigation. For New Hampshire cases, we prefer the Probate Court over the Superior Court because Probate Court judges daily consider fiduciary principles, law, and practice issues. In some cases, such as a dispute over an administrator’s account, the Probate Court has exclusive jurisdiction. In other cases, the […]
When clients tell a partner of mine that they want to leave their beloved vacation home to their children, he half-jokingly responds, “Why would you do that to them?” and then explains that, all too often, family disputes develop over grievances about uneven use, contributions to maintenance, tax, insurance and other expenses, and other property […]
