Goebner

BACKGROUND

On October 19, 2023, McDonald filed a petition challenging purported amendments to a trust created by Stratos, McDonald’s grandmother. The original trust named McDonald and his sister as beneficiaries. But Stratos amended the trust a few months before her death, eliminating McDonald and his sister as beneficiaries and naming Goebner successor trustee. McDonald alleged the changes were the result of undue influence, fraud, and financial elder abuse, and he sought various remedies under section 17200 — determining the validity of trust provisions, compelling the trustee to provide an accounting, removing and replacing the trustee — and section 850 — identifying persons authorized to file petitions requesting court orders. The same day McDonald filed the petition, he notified Goebner of a March 14, 2024 hearing to determine his claim to the property. Two days before the hearing, Goebner filed a demurrer — “Pursuant to Probate Code section 1000, and sections 430.10, et seq., of the California Code of Civil Procedure” — seeking to dismiss McDonald’s claims. Attached to the demurrer was a declaration by Goebner’s counsel that noted his compliance with meet-and-confer…