Estate Trust Beneficiary.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

WI Court of Appeals District IV

Case Name: Mickey Owen, et al. v. Michael Kozlowski, et al.

Case No.: 2018AP290

Officials: Blanchard, Sherman, and Kloppenburg, JJ.

Focus: Estate Trust Beneficiary

Mickey Owen appeals the circuit court's judgment determining that Mickey is not a beneficiary of the Patsy L. Kozlowski Survivor's Trust. He argues that, read in light of the surrounding circumstances, a Will executed by Patsy Kozlowski amended the Trust to include Mickey as a beneficiary. In the alternative, he argues that extrinsic evidence shows that Patsy intended to include Mickey as a beneficiary of the Trust.

We conclude that the Will, read in light of the surrounding circumstances, is ambiguous because it is unclear as to what benefits Patsy intended Mickey to receive under the Will. We also conclude that the circuit court's determination that Patsy did not intend to use the Will to include Mickey as a beneficiary of the Trust is not...