Urick

*1185 A beneficiary filed a petition for instructions as to whether the "no contest" clause of his mother's trust had been violated *1186 after his sister sought to reform the trust to eliminate his interest. The sister, in her capacity as trustee, filed a special motion to strike the petition under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 (the anti-SLAPP statute), 1 which the probate court granted. On appeal, the brother recognizes that petitions to enforce a no contest clause under the Probate Code necessarily satisfy the first step of the anti-SLAPP analysis, because they are based on protected petitioning activity. He contends that petitions to enforce a no contest clause should be exempt from the anti-SLAPP statute, however, because applying the anti-SLAPP statute in this context undermines the purposes of both statutory schemes. He also contends that he showed a probability of prevailing under the second step of the analysis, because his sister filed the reformation petition in her individual capacity, it was a direct contest and the grounds included fraud, and she had no probable cause to file it. Although we appreciate the strength of the argument in favor of exemption, the…