Schwartz

Appellant Robert Schwartz appeals from the September 11, 2007, order denying his petition for an order directing distribution of trust property and granting the petition of respondent Nicolette Schwartz, as Trustee of the Adolf. W. Schwartz and Chris Edda Schwartz Living Trust of 1987, to invoke the no contest clause of the trust. The published portion of this opinion discusses the continuing ramifications of a petition such as appellant’s, even after its claimed withdrawal. We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

On July 21, 1987, Adolf W. Schwartz and Chris Edda Schwartz (jointly, the settlors) executed the Adolf W. Schwartz and Chris Edda Schwartz Living Trust of 1987. In the succeeding 12 years, the settlors amended their trust agreement four times. The settlors executed the fourth amendment, a restatement of the entire trust agreement, on October 24, 1995. The settlors subsequently executed two more amendments, one of them nominating their daughter, respondent, as successor trustee upon their deaths. Appellant is the son of the settlors.

Settlor Chris Schwartz died in 1998 and the trust estate was divided into three separate trusts—a survivor’s trust, a marital trust,…