Jenifer Duncan v. Olga Rawls

Because the rule announced by the majority today is not required by statute, deprives the court of one of its basic functions, promotes and facilitates fraud, and produces a genuinely absurd result, I must respectfully dissent.

The majority misreads OCGA § 53-12-22 (b), which provides that an in terrorem provision is "void unless there is a direction in the trust instrument as to the disposition of the property if the condition in terrorem is violated," to mean that an in terrorem clause is always valid and enforceable , regardless of surrounding circumstances, if it simply contains a…