The October 29, 2008 edition of Trust & Estates contains this article:  A Final Win for the Lawyer of Erin Brockovich Fame. 

Edward Masry was the California trial lawyer who with the help of an assistant named Erin Brockovich brought a class action lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric Company for groundwater contamination which caused wide-spread illness and even death in the town of Hinkley, California.  The case settled for $333 million.  Masry got a check for $40 million.

The story of the suit was brought to the big screen in the movie version Erin Brockovich.  Julie Roberts played Erin (winning the Oscar for Best Actress in 2001) and Albert Finney played Ed Masry (nominated for best supporting actor). 

Masry married Joette in 1992.  In 2004 they created a joint trust to hold property acquired during their marriage.  Before he died in 2005, Masry revoked his interest in the joint trust and transferred his portion of the assets to a new trust controlled by his kids from his first marriage.   Joette didn’t find out about this until after Ed Masry was dead.  Problem was, the trust by its terms was only revocable by the two of them.

The trial court, with whom the appellate court has agreed, found that the delivery of the notice of revocation to the other Settlor (Joette) was not required since Edward’s delivery of the revocation to himself as trustee complied with the applicable provision of the California Probate Code, and the trust document did not specify the the method of revocation set forth in the document was the exclusive way to revoke the trust.

As John Brooks and Erika Alley, authors of the Trust & Estates article put it:  "Even after the lawyer of Erin Brockovich fame was dead, he managed to win a case."