Court of Appeals Addresses Standard for Vacating Probate Decree

In another decision from the Court of Appeals in the field of trusts & estates, in Matter of the American Committee for the Weizman Institute of Science v. Dunn, (decided February 14, 2008), the Court affirmed the Surrogate's Court's denial of an application to vacate a probate decree by a beneficiary named in a prior will holding that "a party seeking to vacate a probate decree based upon the alleged exercise of undue influence must establish a substantial basis for its challenge to the probated will and a reasonable possibility of success on the merits of its claim. A subsidiary issue was whether the exchange of correspondence between the decedent and the charity was sufficient to create a contract to bequeath --- the Court held that it was not.