NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s niece Mary asked a New York appeals court to reinstate a lawsuit that accused the former president and his siblings of cheating her out of her share of the family fortune.
Mary Trump’s case was dismissed last month by a Manhattan judge who ruled she had “unambiguously” waived her right to sue by signing a 2001 family settlement agreement to cash out her inheritance. In an appeal brief filed late Monday, she argued that the judge wrongfully ignored evidence that she signed the agreement under threat.
A release from claims is only valid under New York law if it was “fairly and knowingly made,” Mary Trump’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, argued in the filing. The Trump family settlement, on the other hand, was achieved through coercion, she said, including threats to swamp Mary Trump with tax payments she couldn’t afford and discontinue health insurance for her nephew.
