Latest 2 Cases This Week: In re Estate of Claudette Sheltra (Me.), In the Matter of the Estate of Barry C. Blackburn, Sr., Deceased (Miss.)

#MeToo and What Men and Women Are Willing to Say and Do

SHERRY F. COLB

Cornell Law professor Sherry F. Colb explores why people have such strong feelings about the #MeToo movement (whether they are advocates or opponents) and suggests that both sides rest their positions on contested empirical assumptions about the behavior of men and women. Colb argues that what we believe to be true of men and women generally contributes to our conclusions about the #MeToo movement and our perceptions about how best to handle the accusations of those who come forward.

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In re Estate of Claudette Sheltra

Court: Maine Supreme Judicial Court

Citation: 2020 ME 108

Opinion Date: August 13, 2020

Judge: Connors

Areas of Law: Trusts & Estates

The Supreme Judicial Court dismissed as untimely Janet Sheltra's appeal from a summary judgment determining that her petition for formal probate was time barred and, subject to modification, affirmed a subsequent order of complete settlement. This case involved the will of Claudette Sheltra, who was survived by her son, Paul Sheltra, and her daughter, Janet. The probate court ultimately entered a judgment ordering Paul to transfer certain property to Janet and awarded attorney fees to Paul to be paid for only out of Janet's share of the Estate. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed as modified, holding (1) when a final judgment is entered in a subsidiary docket, the time to appeal that judgment pursuant to Me. R. App. P. 2B(c) begins to run even if there are other pending proceedings involving the same estate or the estate has yet to be fully administered; (2) the court's summary judgment was ripe for appeal when it was entered, and Janet's notice of appeal, filed more than one year later, was untimely as to that judgment; and (3) the order of complete settlement is modified to award attorney fees out of the Estate in general, to be borne pro rata by Janet and Paul as the only two beneficiaries.

In the Matter of the Estate of Barry C. Blackburn, Sr., Deceased

Court: Supreme Court of Mississippi

Citation: 2018-CA-01052-SCT

Opinion Date: August 13, 2020

Judge: Beam

Areas of Law: Trusts & Estates

This appeal arose from a chancery court’s reformation of a trust based on the court’s finding that a scrivener’s error had occurred in drafting the trust instrument, which rendered the trust’s language ambiguous and thwarted the grantor’s intent. The estate of Barry Christopher Blackburn, Jr., along with four nonprofit groups named in the trust appealed the chancery court’s decision, claiming that the trust’s language was not ambiguous and that the chancery court erroneously disregarded the grantor’s intent as stated in the trust. After review, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the chancery court's reformation of the trust. "While a mistake had been made with the drafting of the trust instrument which justified correction of the trust’s language by the chancery court, this was not a complicated case. As the chancery court found, a reading of the whole trust instrument itself reveals that a mistake had been made and it clearly shows Barry’s true intent regarding the corpus of the trust." The Court reversed and remanded, however, the court's award of attorney fees in this case, because the court did not make findings that the fees were "reasonable" or that "justice and equity" required the fees be paid from the trust.