Alabama Supreme Court hears dispute over private advisory committee and forfeiture clause in Banks estate

At oral argument before the Supreme Court of Alabama, Chris Hamer, counsel for appellant Grant Banks, urged the court to rule that a will provision requiring disputes to be resolved by a private advisory committee and a related forfeiture clause cannot be used to deny a beneficiary the statutory right to request an inventory and accounting. "The case before the court this morning is unprecedented," Hamer told the justices, arguing that the trial court—s referral to a nonjudicial advisory committee "abdicated its judicial function." (00:01:22)

Hamer told the court that Grant, then a minor, sought only an inventory and accounting — not to contest the will—s dispositions — and that Alabama law and the Alabama Uniform Trust Code protect beneficiaries— rights to information. "Petition for inventory and accounting is not an impediment to administration; it's participating in the administration," Hamer said, urging the justices to construe any forfeiture provision narrowly. (00:44:27)

Chip Browder, counsel for appellee and the estate, defended the will—s provisions as an exercise of the testator—s testamentary intent and cited historical precedent allowing conditional dispositions.…