Salce v. Cardello

Citations

• 210 Conn. App. 66

Syllabus

The plaintiff and the defendant were beneficiaries of a will and a trust executed by their mother, M. The will and trust agreement contained in terrorem clauses, which provided, inter alia, that if a beneficiary filed a creditor's claim against the estate, or objected in any manner to any action taken or proposed to be taken in good faith by the fiduciary of either instrument, then that beneficiary would forfeit his or her inheri- tance. While the fiduciary was administering M's estate, the defendant and her attorney realized that the fiduciary had apparently made errors in connection with a state tax form that he had filed on behalf of the estate. The defendant's attorney raised these concerns with the fiduciary, and the defendant provided the fiduciary with certain documentation at his request, but the fiduciary indicated that he would not amend the state tax form unless he was instructed to do so by the Probate Court. The defendant subsequently filed a request with the Probate Court for a hearing on those issues, but later withdrew that request for unknown reasons. Thereafter, the plaintiff filed a complaint in the Probate Court seeking to enforce the in terrorem clauses against the defendant, and the Probate Court denied his request. Subsequently, the plaintiff appealed to the Superior Court from the Probate Court's decision. The Superior Court held a trial de novo and rendered judgment dismissing the plain- tiff's appeal. Held: 1. The plaintiff could not prevail on his claim that the defendant violated the in terrorem clauses by filing a creditor's claim against the estate: the Superior Court's finding that the defendant did not make a creditor's claim against the estate was not clearly erroneous because, although the defendant had provided the fiduciary with documentation of expenses she incurred on behalf of the trust, the record contained testimony from the defendant, her attorney, and the fiduciary explaining that it was the fiduciary who had requested that