Matter of Pozarny

In Matter of Pozarny (177 Misc 2d 752), the court was faced with an estate planning kit, including a living trust and a pourover will filed in a looseleaf binder. The trust agreement was so loosely drafted that the court noted dozens of inconsistencies, including such basic issues as the possibility that the decedent had improperly attempted to amend article Eight of the trust, which governed distribution of trust principal upon the settlor's death ( id. at 756-757). Nonetheless, the court refused to treat the trust as a nullity and construed the trust's provisions relating to the distribution of the trust upon the settlor's death ( id. at 762).