Danie Stewart and Rachel Kosoff v. David W. Martin, et al.

Dayton, Ohio truat and estate lawyers represented the parties contesting the management of a revocable trust.



Lester Warren Martin passed away on March 13, 2020, at age 96. A World War II

veteran and a graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Martin was an accomplished physician at

the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, one of the world's best youth hospitals. Among Dr. Martin's

contributions to medicine was his development of a procedure called the "Lester Martin Pull

Through Method,” a surgical technique that eliminated the need for children with ulcerative

colitis to use ostomy bags. He also performed Ohio's first successful kidney transplant, which

took place in 1965.



Dr. Martin was also a successful investor. He read the Investor's Business Daily publication every morning until his death. An "avid” manager of his finances, Dr. Martin accumulated millions of dollars in wealth. R. 143, Pg. ID 2249. To prepare for the distribution of these funds upon his death, he created an estate plan in 1990.



The centerpiece of Lester's1 estate plan was a revocable trust. A revocable trust functions like a will. It provides instructions for how to distribute the donor's property after he dies. And a revocable trust is, unsurprisingly, revocable—meaning that Lester was free to cancel the trust or change its terms whenever he wanted. Because it gives the donor flexibility without any of the drawbacks of a traditional will (including the time and expense of going through

probate court), the revocable trust has "emerged as the successor to the will as the centerpiece in contemporary estate planning.” Robert H. Sitkoff, Trusts & Estates: Implementing Freedom of Disposition, 58 St. Louis Univ. L.J. 643, 655 (2014).



Lester had five children. The plan was for each child to get an equal share of Lester's trust assets upon his death. But in 2011, one of Lester's daughters, Sarah Stewart, passed away. That meant that Sarah's two children—Daniel Stewart and Rachel Kosoff—stepped into their mother's shoes as a trust beneficiary. They were each supposed to receive half of he events that spawned this litigation began on February 20, 2018, when Lester was 94 years old. On that day, Lester gave his only son, David Martin, a power of attorney. This authorized David to "manage[] and conduct all [Lester's] affairs, as [Lester] could do if acting personally.” R. 54-2, Pg. ID 362. Among other things, the power of attorney allowed David to withdraw money from Lester's trust and distribute it to Lester's children and grandchildren. Lester also installed David as the trustee of the revocable trust.Sarah's share.



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Vacated and remanded