Donkin v. Donkin

Opinion

CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J.

Rodney E. Donkin and Mary E. Donkin, a married couple, executed a revocable trust in 1988 (the Family Trust) as part of their estate planning, naming their four children as equal primary beneficiaries after they both had died. Rodney died in 2002. Shortly before her death in 2005, Mary executed a second amendment to the Family Trust instrument (hereafter the Trust’s Second Amendment) altering the provisions governing the allocation of the Family Trust’s assets after her death. Both the Trust’s Second Amendment and the original Family Trust instrument contain a “no…