Matter of Goetz, 8 Misc. 3d 200 (Surr. Ct., Westchester 2005)

Surrogate’s Court Litigation – Trusts & Estates – Will & Trust Contests – Invalidation of Trust Amendment

Will and Trust Contests comes in different forms. Here, the Surrogate’s Court faced the fairly novel issue of whether an attorney-in-fact could use the authority conferred on her in a power of attorney form to amend a trust created by another person to grant to herself a limited power of appointment over the trust remainder. Pursuant to the terms of the trust in question, the grantor reserved to himself the right to amend or revoke its terms during his lifetime. Representing a client that was adversely affected by the trust amendment, Gail M. Boggio and Robert M. Redis successfully argued that the attorney-in-fact had no authority to make the trust amendment and that the trust amendment was invalid. The Surrogate held, among other things, that although the terms of the subject trust gave the grantor himself the right to revoke the trust or amend its terms, it did not confer the same authority upon the grantor’s agent or upon any other person.