Nimetz and Streng Win Case in Court of Appeals
We are pleased to announce that two of our lawyers, Irma K. Nimetz and Frank W. Streng, who both Co-Chair McCarthy Fingar’s Estate & Trust Litigation group, won a case in the New York Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, in a case captioned Kristine M. Carlson v. Crissy Colangelo, individually and as trustee of the Donald P. Dempsey Revocable Trust, et al., 2025 N.Y. slip op. 02264 (2025). The case involved an “in terrorem” clause. An in terrorem clause, also known as a no-contest clause, is a provision in a will or trust that disinherits a beneficiary if they challenge the document’s validity or its provisions. In Carlson v. Colangelo, Irma and Frank represented a client, in which the lower courts and one appellate court had determined that our client had violated an in terrorem clause, and, thus, forfeited her legacies under the decedent’s trust agreement. However, on appeal, the Court of Appeals, in a 4 to 3 opinion, disagreed with the lower courts and agreed with our client. Irma Nimetz, who argued the case, convinced the Court of Appeals that our client did not violate the in terrorem clause and thus did not forfeit her legacies.