Surrogate John Czygier Jr.
Decedent Sackson died in 2007 and was survived by one distributee, her daughter Leigh. Decedent’s will left the residue of her estate to Leigh and nominated as executor decedent’s stepson, Jonathan, and was admitted to probate without objection. Leigh filed objections to Jonathan’s accounting, alleging that he failed to collect all assets of the estate, improperly paid expenses, paid attorney fees that were unreasonable, and committed other breaches of his fiduciary duties. The court determined that a living trust created by the decedent and her husband under indenture in 1995 was not revoked prior to the decedent’s death, finding that the decedent’s husband lacked capacity to conduct his affairs in 2002. The court concluded that the purported revocation of trust was invalid and ineffective, as the credible proof adduced at trial established that the revocation was executed at a time when the decedent’s husband lacked the requisite capacity to execute it.
