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 Swenson v. Silk et al. in a thoughtful, scholarly order, Judge David King declined to recognize intentional interference with inheritance as a claim in New Hampshire. The Swenson petitioners as trustees and beneficiaries of a trust claim that a deceased predecessor trustee breached his fiduciary duties by making impermissible trust distributions to himself and that these distributions were […]
I have the pleasure today of presenting at the 36th Annual Tax Forum of the NH CPA Society and the NH Bar Association with Alyssa Graham Garrigan on trust decanting and pretermitted heirs. Here is a link to our slides. (Note: Ralph Holmes is currently retired from McLane Middleton. For information on this or other […]
Congratulations to Dan Kalinski on his big win in Estate of McKenzie and thanks to Dan for sharing a copy of the order! Sometimes following a death, disputes arise about the ownership of property between the administrator of the estate who claims that the item was owned by the decedent and therefore is part of the […]
Will and trust cases often implicate the interests of multiple parties, some of whom may wish to participate in the proceeding, but be unable or unwilling to engage counsel. By filing with the court an appearance form available on the New Hampshire Probate Court’s website and copying all other parties and their counsel on the filing, an […]
The Justices of the New Hampshire Supreme Court asked lots of penetrating questions in the oral argument (video link) in In re Estate of Mesiti, an interlocutory appeal presenting an important standing issue of first impression, namely, whether a child can contest a parent’s will without an allegation that he will benefit if he wins. As discussed in […]
I have the pleasure today of presenting with other panelists on “Trust Litigation: Trends and Developments” hosted by the New Hampshire Trust Council. The slides for my presentation are available here.
Congratulations to Frank Kenison and Bridget Denzer on their big win in Bonanno v. Bonanno and many thanks to them for sharing Judge David King’s Final Order, which is a great primer on NH law governing trust contests on undue influence and other grounds. In these cases, the alleged undue influencer almost always was in a confidential […]
