Standing and Discovery in Will Contest

Issues before the Court in appeal from probate of will contest: (1) does trustee have standing; (2) does subpoena requesting decedent’s legal files violate attorney-client privilege and how should privilege be claimed per document; and (3) were the subpoenas for emails of decedent over 4 years overly broad. The court held that: (1) the trustee had standing as an aggrieved party, because the will contest affected beneficiaries of the trust and the trustee was a fiduciary of the beneficiaries; (2) the executor held the attorney-client privilege and a log should be created with sufficient information for each matter claimed as privileged; and (3) the subpoenas for email discovery were overly broad and needed to be narrowly tailored.  Griggs Estate (No. 1), 2 Fid. Rep. 3d 346 (O.C. Chester 2012) (Opinion by Tunnell, J.)

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Comments are closed.