Surrogate Nora Anderson
Plaintiff Wagenstein created an irrevocable trust for her lifetime benefit, with the remainder at her death to be distributed to her two children, including defendant Shwarts, in equal shares. Wagenstein subsequently sought partition of real property owned by an inter vivos trust. Shwarts counterclaimed for a declaratory judgment that the parties had entered into a contract for the disposition of the real property and for specific performance of that contract. The court denied Wagenstein's motion for summary judgment and granted Shwarts' cross-motion for summary judgment, finding that a binding contract was made between the parties for the division of the trust assets along particular lines. The court added that the fact that not every incidental detail of winding up the trust was in place, or that the trust termination had not yet been implemented, did not prevent the contract from being binding on the parties.
