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Case Summaries

Probate Trusts

[05/06] Estate of Coll-Monge v. Inner Peace Movement
In an action for trademark infringement and related claims, summary judgment for defendants-non-profits is reversed in part and remanded where: 1) the district court erred in holding that a non-profit corporation cannot be a related company whose use of the trademark is controlled by the mark's registrant; and 2) there remain disputed issues of fact regarding both the doctrine's applicability in this case, and the capacity in which testator registered the marks with the USPTO.

[03/31] Akira Akazawa v. Link New Tech. Int'l, Inc.
In a patent dispute, summary judgment for defendant based on lack of standing is vacated where issues of Japanese intestacy law must be resolved by the district court in order to determine whether plaintiff owned the patent at issue, and therefore possessed standing to bring the present suit.

[03/27] Estate of McDaniel
In an intestacy situation where a husband deceased before the effective date of a stipulated judgment dissolving the marital partnership, the trial court properly found that the wife was not entitled to an intestate share as a "surviving spouse" within the meaning of section 78 of the Probate Code because she was by the time of decedent's death "a party to a valid proceeding concluded by an order purporting to terminate all marital rights" within the meaning of 78(d).

[03/27] Estate of Claeyssens
In a case involving estate or inheritance tax, an order denying an executrix's petition to refund fees imposed pursuant to Government Code sections 26827 and 68087 is reversed as: 1) to the extent that these statutes authorize the fee, they were enacted in violation of the state constitution and are of no force or effect; and 2) Proposition 6 (Rev. and Tax. Code section 13301), coupled with article II section 10 of California Constitution provide that the Legislature alone may not impose an estate or inheritance tax.

[03/13] In the Matter of the Accounting by Fleet Bank
Relying on strong policy considerations that applied in Matter of Best, 66 N.Y.2d 151 (1985), the Court of Appeals finds that a child adopted out of a family by strangers does not share in the proceeds of class gifts to the biological parent's issue created by 1926 and 1963 irrevocable trusts.

[03/04] Anthony v. US
A decision finding that a non-transferrable private annuity must be valued, for estate tax purposes, in accordance with certain tables set out in the Internal Revenue Code is affirmed where the case presented no applicable exception to valuation of the relevant annuities by use of the tables.

[03/03] Ranger v. Ranger
In a complaint for construction requesting the court construe various parts of the subject trust agreement, granting of summary judgment in favor of defendant regarding the disposition of the deceased's business is reversed and the matter remanded where summary judgment for defendant was inappropriate as the directive containing the disposition would not take effect until after the surviving trustor's death.

[02/26] In re Estate of Yucis
In the matter of obtaining restitution for theft from an estate, order of the probate court that convicted thief's fiance should give thief's personal property to the sheriff for sale and allowing fiance to go forward with the sale of real estate in which thief may have a contractual interest is reversed and the matter remanded where the probate court committed a clear error of law by entering the order.

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