Wills, Estates & Trusts
Oct. 9, 2026
Paper contest exception to no-contest clause torn to shreds
A California Court of Appeal decision closes a 117-year-old loophole, holding that beneficiaries cannot escape a no-contest clause simply by withdrawing a challenge before taking further action.
This week, the Court of Appeal addressed and dismissed an archaic defense to enforcing no-contest clauses: the so-called "paper contest" exception, based on the 1909 decision, In Re Estate of Hite, 155 Cal. 436, 444 (Hite). Hite stated that "the mere filing of a paper contest, which has been abandoned without action, and has not been employed to thwart the testator's expressed wishes" need not be declared a contest. In other words: no harm...
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