Dismissal of Petition Claiming that Settlement Triggered ‘No-Contest” Clause of Will

Matter of Reynolds, N.Y.L.J., August 31, 2012 (Sur. Ct., Suffolk County 2012)

Attorneys Andrew W. Heymann and William L. Blum successfully defended the executor from a claim that in entering into a stipulated settlement in a contested estate proceeding he triggered the in terrorem clause of the decedent’s will, which would have denied him a personal share of the estate. The Surrogate’s Court held that the petitioner’s argument “most certainly would violate the long-standing tradition of this and most other Surrogate’s Courts, which seek to find a resolution of the parties’ disputes as a preferred outcome to a trial or summary determination”, and thus dismissed the petition.