Everyone loves pizza but there might not be so much love between those that make it as a case out of New York shows. In 2004, the owner of a well known pizza parlor died and left her estate to her daughter while excluding her son. The catch is that the arrangement was intentional since the son was going through a divorce and his share was going to be given to him by his sister if he paid all the estate taxes on his marriage was over. But the plan went predictably awry when the sister realized everything is worth more than a tax bill and froze her brother out. The two went to court, were thrown out, went back, and now an appeals court is giving the go ahead to sue the sister for unjust enrichment and estoppel even though the divorce may need to be reopened. This just goes to show that convoluted estate plans meant to get around paying out money will more likely than not turn out to be a debacle that saves little and creates more problems than it solves.
See, John’s Pizzeria family to go to court over their empire, New York Daily News, March 9, 2016.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
