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Wills, Trusts & Estates Keyed to Bonfield
Chavin v. PNC Bank
Citation:
816 A.2d 781 (Del. 2003)Facts
Florence Chavin, after the deaths of her husband and son Favel, created a new trust and will, distributing her estate primarily between her son, Leslie, and her two grandchildren, Kenneth and Jeffrey. Florence made testamentary gifts to ten people, including Harlan Miller, her husband’s great-nephew. Florence died in 1999 with an estate valued at approximately $2 million. Leslie, her son, was murdered shortly thereafter in Brazil. His estate passed to Harlan Miller. Kenneth and Jeffrey, the surviving grandchildren, filed a declaratory judgment action against PNC Bank and Harlan, seeking a determination that they were the residuary beneficiaries of Florence’s trust. The trust stated that if Leslie was deceased at the time of distribution, the estate would go to Florence’s living issue, per stirpes. The dispute centers on whether the phrase “if he shall then be living” refers to the time of Florence’s death or the time of the trust’s distribution. John Amalfitano, the attorney who drafted the revised trust, provided testimony regarding Florence’s intentions, stating that Florence had wanted to give assets outright to Leslie and that she would have likely given more to her grandsons if she had known of Leslie’s premature death.
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11m 20s