Howard v. Howard

Leo Howard's trust, created with his wife Marcene (plaintiff) primarily for estate-tax purposes, expressly stated that Marcene's support and comfort should be preferred over his children's remainder interests and that he intentionally made no provision for his stepchildren, while separately authorizing the trustee to consider a beneficiary's other resources only in certain discretionary distributions to his grandchildren; when Marcene and her stepson Coy (defendant) disagreed as co-trustees, the trial court ruled Marcene's interests should be preferred and that Coy could not consider her other resources in administering the trust, and Coy appealed that latter ruling, arguing failing to consider her other resources let her effectively benefit her own children with the income at his father's expense.