In December, 2010, Ruth Stumm executed her will, leaving one-eighth of the residue of her estate to the First Presbyterian Church of Wood-Ridge, N.J., “or its successor” to establish an endowment in the name of a local resident. In 2015, she was declared mentally incompetent and she died in 2016. The Wood-Ridge church had dissolved in 2014 and transferred all of its assets to the Presbytery of the Palisades, its legal successor. Her executor asked the court for “instructions” on the rightful recipient of the residue. After a three-day trial, the trial judge awarded the residue to the First Presbyterian Church of Moonachie, a nearby church to which many congregants of the Wood-Ridge church...