Supreme Court of California

The Court of Appeal's judgment, which determined that certain of the plaintiff-beneficiaries' claims constituted a contest violating the no contest clauses of the amended Family Trust instrument under the former law is reversed, where: 1) safe harbor proceedings filed before 2010 are not affected by the repeal of former Probate Code section 21320, which previously authorized safe harbor applications, and therefore, the probate court did not err in ruling on the plaintiff-beneficiaries' application; 2) the current law is applicable because the amended Family Trust instrument became irrevocable after January 1, 2001; 3) under the current law, the no contest clauses in the amended Family Trust instrument are unenforceable against the beneficiaries' proposed petition; and 4) the Successor Trustees do not qualify for a fairness exception to the presumptive applicability of the current law.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/26/2013
• Published 12/26/2013

Judges

• CANTIL-SAKAUYE

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel