Action For Accounting and Removal of the Executor Does Not Trigger Forfeiture

The testator’s will contained a no-contest clause requiring forfeiture of any gift to a beneficiary who “contests the validity” of the will or of “any provision thereof,” whether or not there is probable cause for the contest. The court held that the beneficiary’s request for a declaratory judgment was proper, that the beneficiary’s proposed action to compel an accounting and require removal of the executor was not a will contest, and that it would violate public policy and well as the principle that in terrorem clauses must be strictly construed to apply the clause to the proposed action. Sinclair v. Sinclair, No. S08A1172, 2008 WL 4691693 (Ga. Oct. 27, 2008).