Preliminary objections to an answer and new matter is not a pleading allowed by Pa. O.C. Rules and is improper. Further, a party does not lack standing merely because the petition fails to name them as an interested party. Mahlstadt … Continue reading
Category Archives: Opinions
An agent’s change of an IRA beneficiary was invalid when the decedent was obligated under a divorce settlement agreement to name his children as beneficiaries. Trembley Agent for Lasser, 10 Fid.Rep.3d 229 (Chester O.C. 2020). … Continue reading
The Orphans’ Court did not abuse its discretion in allowing a surviving spouse to revoke her election against her husband’s will three and a half years after the deadline for making the election when the spouse did not have full … Continue reading
A settlement agreement disposing of all objections to an account of the executors, negotiated during a settlement conference conducted by a master appointed by the Orphans’ Court, will be enforced against a well -educated and intelligent pro se litigant who … Continue reading
In a declaratory judgment action, the Orphans’ Court interpreted and applied the contracts, assignments, and other documents signed by the decedent, the executor, and a claimant against the estate to determine the ownership of commissions payable to an agency that … Continue reading
The anti-alienation provisions that protect municipal pensions from attachment only apply while those funds are in the possession of the pension fund administrator, and so a post-nuptial agreement in which a spouse agreed to waive her rights to her husband’s … Continue reading
The decedent became disabled as an adult, and the decedent’s father owed him no legal duty of support, so the decedent as not a “dependent child” for the purpose of the forfeiture statute, 20 Pa.C.S. § 2106(b). In Re: The … Continue reading
The merger of two non-profit corporations holding charitable funds, one of which had been decertified as a fire fighting organization by its municipality, did not require the application of the cy pres doctrine when the decertified organization had broad charitable … Continue reading
Amendments to the articles and by-laws of a foundation that changed the charitable goals of the foundation, and eliminated provisions that guaranteed that control of the foundation remained in the oldest descendant of the founder, adopted by the directors of … Continue reading
Following Trust under Agreement of Edward Winslow Taylor, 640 Pa. 629, 164 A.3d 1147 (2017), a trust cannot be modified to allow the beneficiaries to remove and replace trustees even with the consent of the settlor under 20 Pa.C.S. § … Continue reading