Richard L. Merrick v. Mercantile-Safe Deposit & Trust Company

POWELL, Associate Justice:

The primary question presented is whether appellant, Mercantile-Safe Deposit & Trust Company (“Mercantile”), may be held liable to a beneficiary of the last will and testament of one of its trust customers, where liability is premised on Mercantile’s failure to advise the testatrix of its knowledge that the proposed bequest would be legally ineffective. We must also consider whether the district court erred (i) in excluding from the jury’s consideration evidence that the plaintiff’s adult children benefited as a result of the settlement of related litigation, and…