This past year, the appellate courts have addressed a myriad of issues impacting the field of trusts and estates. This month’s column will highlight several of these opinions.
Undue Influence
In Matter of MacGuigan, 140 A.D.3d 625 (1st Dep’t 2016), the Appellate Division, First Department, affirmed an order of the Surrogate’s Court, New York County (Mella, S.), which granted proponent’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the objection based on undue influence. Citing Children’s Aid Socy. of City of N.Y. v. Loveridge, 70 N.Y. 387, 394-95 (1877), the court opined that the kind of influence sufficient to invalidate a will was not the result of “‘affection; the desire of gratifying the wishes of another; the ties of attachment arising from consanguinity, or the memory of kind acts and friendly offices’” but rather, amounted to coercion, or the exercise of power over the testator in the making of the will and its provisions.
