177 Md. App. 615 - Schoukroun v. Karsenty’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The circuit court was not clearly erroneous in finding that Mr. Schoukroun had not acted with the intent to defraud his widow or his daughter. That finding, however, is not of dispositive consequence to Kathleen’s appeal. Kathleen relies on Knell v. Price, 318 Md. 501 , 569 A.2d 636 (1990), for the proposition that — as a matter of law — a deceased spouse’s transfer of property during the marriage constitutes fraud on marital rights of the surviving spouse whenever, as is the situation in the case at bar, the “transfer” was not “complete, absolute, and unconditional.” .... We are persuaded that Kathleen’s interpretation of Knell is correct. We therefore hold that Mr. Schoukroun’s decision to retain the power to revoke the Trust requires that the assets of the Trust be included in his estate for purposes of calculating Kathleen’s statutory share. The Knell decision also applies to the financial accounts that were to be transferred to the Trust upon Mr. Schoukroun’s death. During his life, Mr. Schoukroun retained the power to alter the beneficiary of the financial accounts he owned at Fidelity Investments. As we interpret the holding in Knell , even though the circuit court was not clearly erroneous in finding that none of Mr. Schoukroun’s actions were undertaken with a “fraudulent intent,” the assets in those accounts must also be included in his estate for purposes of calculating Kathleen’s statutory share.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Karsenty v. Schoukroun