Reproduced with permission of Trusts & Estates magazine (February 2007).
In Florida, no-contest clauses — aka in terrorem clauses — are void as against public policy, thought to chill citizens' access to the courts for redress. In Washington, D.C., they are strictly enforced. In Illinois, courts say they are enforceable but go to great lengths to find reasons not to do so. California law allows a plaintiff to check the water temperature before jumping in the pool.
Consider the following two recent cases, one out of strict Washington D.C. and the other from the more forgiving California:
In Washington, D.C.'s Ackerman v. Genevieve Ackerman Family Trust, 908 A.2d 1200 (D.C. App. 2006), the settlor and her husband created and funded similar trusts that would be irrevocable when the first of them died and, when the survivor died, be divided between their son, Stephen J. Ackerman, Jr., and daughter, Mary Frances Abbott. Both trusts named the couple's son-in-law as trustee. The
