Agnes M. Grassman Revocable Living Trust v. Reichert

Facts

John A. and Agnes Gassmann created identical revocable living trusts to manage their assets and transferred farmland to a partnership called “John Thomas Gassmann LLLP,” with their trusts holding 49.5% each and their son John T. holding 1%. Their trusts outlined how their interests in the partnership would be allocated upon their deaths. Specifically, Article Five, Paragraph 6 of the trusts stated that John T. would receive the interests if he survived them, or his descendants would receive it if he did not. However, after John A. and Agnes passed away, their children disagreed on whether John T. was entitled to receive the farmland outright or whether it should be distributed equally among the four children under the residue provisions in Article Ten. Wells Fargo, acting as trustee, petitioned the court to clarify and reform the trusts, citing an affidavit from the drafting attorney who claimed a mistake had been made. The attorney alleged that the trusts should have directed the farmland to “the Trustee of the John T. Gassmann Generation Skipping Trust” rather than the generic “my Trustee.” This ambiguity led to a legal dispute among the heirs, requiring court intervention.