Scharlin

Joseph Scharlin filed a petition for a writ of mandate seeking to vacate respondent superior court’s order finding his proposed challenge to the validity of an amendment to a trust would violate the no contest clauses of both the original trust agreement and the amendment. We issued an alternative writ and granted a hearing to determine whether a beneficiary under the decedent’s trust of a joint estate plan forfeits his or her interest by challenging the validity of an amendment to the survivor’s trust under that estate plan. We conclude the writ should be granted.

Facts

In July 1981, Max and Frances Scharlin, the parents of Joseph and real party in interest Jacqueline Brown, executed a revocable trust agreement entitled the Max Scharlin and Frances Scharlin Family Trust. Under the agreement, the Scharlins were to deposit all of their community and separate property into an inter vivos trust. The instrument provided they would receive the trust’s income and any portion of the principal requested during their joint lives. Upon the death of one of the settlors, the trust estate would divide into two shares designated as the survivor’s trust (Trust A) and decedent’s trust…