§ 36C-4C-5.  Declaration by court; bar to contesting validity of trust.

(a) If the court enters a judgment declaring a revocable trust to be valid, such judgment shall be binding upon all parties to the proceeding, including any persons represented in the proceeding, pursuant to the provisions of Article 3 of Chapter 36C of the General Statutes, and no party bound by the judgment shall have any further right to, and shall be barred from filing, a challenge to the validity of the revocable trust once that trust becomes irrevocable.

(b) If the court declares a revocable trust to be valid, upon the motion of the petitioner or the court, the court may order that the trust cannot be revoked and that no subsequent revocable trust or amendment to the validated trust will be valid unless the revocation or the subsequent amendment to the validated trust is declared valid in a proceeding under this Article. If the court enters such an order, any subsequent revocation of the trust not declared valid in a proceeding under this Article shall be void, and any subsequent trust or amendment to the validated trust not declared valid in a proceeding under this Article shall be void.

(c) If a revocable trust judicially declared valid is revoked or modified by a subsequent revocable trust or amendment, nothing in this section shall bar an interested person from contesting the validity of that subsequent trust or amendment, unless that subsequent trust or amendment is also declared valid in a proceeding under this Article in which the interested person was a party. If a trust or amendment to a trust judicially declared valid is revoked by a method other than the execution of a subsequent trust, nothing in this section shall bar an interested person from contesting the validity of that revocation, unless that revocation is also declared valid in a proceeding under this Article in which the interested person was a party.

(d) Nothing in this Article shall preclude a party from seeking relief from a judgment pursuant to Rule 60 of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure, including, without limitation, for fraud upon the court. (2021-53, s. 1.1.)