Will & trust contests · Pasadena
Will and trust contests in Pasadena
Pasadena City Hall. Photo: Adavyd, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pasadena estates are often one house bought long ago and a lifetime of savings. When a late change sends them to one person, John J. Donahue litigates for the family members left out.
Why the stakes run high here
A Pasadena house bought in the 1970s can be worth twenty times what was paid. Add a parent who lived a long time, a caregiver or a nearby child who handled the bills, and an amendment signed in the last year of life, and the whole estate can turn on who was in the room.
Common patterns in Pasadena cases
The new companion. A widowed parent’s partner of a few years becomes trustee, or gets the house. Read a story like this →
The trustee who lives in the house. A sibling stays in a parent’s home as trustee, pays nothing and has no plan to sell or account. Read a story like this →
The changed beneficiary. Retirement accounts and insurance that bypass the trust entirely. Read a story like this →
The clause. A no-contest clause meant to keep a child from asking questions. Read a story like this →
Where it’s heard
Pasadena cases are filed with the Los Angeles County court’s Probate Division. Hearings are mostly downtown at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, mediation is common, and long trials can be sent to a separate trial department.
From the calls John gets
The caregiver near Orange Grove
A widower in his nineties lived near Orange Grove Boulevard with a paid caregiver who came five days a week. In his last year a new will left her the house. His daughter, who lived in San Diego and called every Sunday, heard about it from the caregiver.
What John looks at: Who arranged the new will, whether the caregiver was in the room, his doctor’s notes from that year, and whether California’s rules on gifts to care custodians apply, because they can shift the burden of proof onto the caregiver.
Illustration. Details changed; not a real client. Read a story like this →
Every name for these cases
In court papers you will see them called trust contests, will contests, petitions to invalidate an amendment, petitions to remove a trustee, petitions to compel an accounting, or claims of undue influence and financial elder abuse. To a family it is simpler: Dad’s plan changed, and someone close to him gained.
Before you confront anyone
The instinct is to call the companion, the sibling or the trustee and demand an explanation. Hold that call. A heated conversation rarely produces documents, and it can prompt someone to move money, sell belongings or hire a lawyer before you have seen anything.
Quieter steps work better: a written request for the trust and every amendment, a list of what you know was in the house, copies of anything you already have, and the date on every notice. If there is a life estate or a pending sale, time matters more than usual. Then call John, and let the first contact the other side gets be a careful one.
In families’ own words
What Pasadena families ask
Dad’s caregiver says he wanted her to have the house. Does that settle it?
No. When a caregiver who is not family receives a large gift, California presumes undue influence unless the caregiver proves otherwise, with narrow exceptions such as an independent attorney’s review.
Do we need to prove Dad was incompetent?
No. Undue influence can be proven even when a parent understood what they signed, if someone used their trust or dependence to change the plan.
Do you work on contingency here?
For qualifying cases, yes, anywhere in California. How contingency works →
Stories from families like yours
Cut out at the end
“They always said it would be split three ways.”
Mom and Dad always said everything would be split evenly. The trust that surfaced after the funeral says otherwise.
The late change
The diagnosis and the signature, the same month.
Dad’s dementia was in his medical chart. So was the new trust amendment.
The house in Mom’s name
“Mom kept it simple. Now nobody can sell the house.”
No trust, no fight, just a house in Mom’s name. And nothing moves without the court.
Elsewhere John works
Will contestsTrust contestsProbate in PasadenaContests in Los Angeles CountyContests in Orange CountyContests in Los AngelesContests in Santa MonicaContests in Beverly HillsContests in Long BeachContests in GlendaleContests in TorranceContests in WhittierContests in IrvineContests in Huntington Beach