Michael Tringham surveys the world of family will disputes
Recent reports on mutual wills find an interesting echo in a recent decision by the Kansas Court of Appeal (Eggeson v DeLuca, No 103728).
John and Barbara Leavey executed “joint contractual wills” that followed their antenuptial agreement by detailing an asset distribution plan for Barbara’s siblings and John’s children upon the death of the surviving spouse. Later Barbara allowed John to create a revocable trust with “substantially similar” distributive provisions. But three years after his wife’s death John executed an amendment to his trust that would effectively change that plan.
One factor may have been his awareness that a house owned by Barbara—in which he had a life estate and which would then descend to his wife’s siblings—had doubled in value. The court’s opinion also notes that according to balance sheets attached to the antenuptial agreement Barbara’s assets were then worth nearly twice John’s—although by the time he died his had grown in value from $113,600 to $700,000. John’s daughter claimed that he was entitled to amend the original provisions in order
