Widow of Ed Masry loses court case involving his estate

Ed Masry Former T.O. City Council member The widow of former celebrity attorney and Thousand Oaks City Councilmember Ed Masry lost a case in court in which she had attempted to gain control of the family's multimillion-dollar trust.

Joette Masry, who remarried several months after her husband's death in 2005 and now goes by the name Joette Dell, said her late husband improperly changed the conditions of the trust—but her claim was ruled invalid by a state appellate court.

Ed and Joette Masry, who were married for 13 years, created a jointly controlled trust before Masry's death. A victory in court by Joette Dell would have given her control over both halves of the estate.

Shortly before he died, Masry moved his half of the money to the control of two of his children. Son Louis Masry, a Newbury Park resident and president of the Agoura/Oak Park/Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, was named executor, overseeing the estate for the five Masry children, including three from Ed Masry's previous marriage and two from Dell's previous marriage.

Dell argued that the change violated the terms of the trust regarding notification procedures. But Ed Masry had notification sent to himself as a trustee, which satisfied the trust requirements.

"In our view the thing that was the determining factor was the statute itself, said Mark Rochefort of the Los Angeles law firm Alston & Bird, which represented the Masry children. "The California courts over time relaxed the technicality required to revoke trusts and in particular have recognized that the trusts involving community property entitle either spouse to exercise substantial control over that portion of the property."

According to Rochefort, "The trust created in 2005 by Ed was a trust that involved only his half of the community property. The extent that anyone suggests that the 2005 trust affected Joette's half is just not accurate."

Dell's attorney, Peter Gelblum of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp in Los Angeles, believes that when Ed Masry signed off on the changes two weeks before he died from diabetes, he was not coherent.

"The change severely limits the income (Dell) gets for her maintenance and support, no matter how desperate she may become," Gelblum said.

Gelblum also says the court misinterpreted the statute relating to trusts.

"We think this is against the law and a horrible policy," Gelblum said. "I wouldn't be surprised if hundreds of thousands of trust agreements will have to be rewritten."

The next step for Dell would be to petition for a review of the case by the California Supreme Court.

"There's a good chance we will appeal," Gelblum said.

Masry was highlighted in the 2000 movie "Erin Brockovich" starring Julia Roberts, which chronicled a multimillion dollar case won by Masry's Westlake Village law firm on behalf of a rural California town that had accused Pacific Gas and Electric of contaminating local groundwater and causing high cancer rates.