United States Court of Appeals
                      For the First Circuit


Nos. 18-2191
     19-1095
                         HARRY DE PRINS,

                       Plaintiff, Appellee,

                                v.

MICHAEL J. MICHAELES, Trustee of the Donald Belanger Irrevocable
 Trust dated October 28, 2008; DONALD BELANGER IRREVOCABLE TRUST
                     DATED OCTOBER 28, 2008,

                     Defendants, Appellants.


          APPEALS FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
                FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

         [Hon. Timothy S. Hillman, U.S. District Judge]


                              Before

                  Torruella, Lynch, and Kayatta,
                          Circuit Judges.


     Michael J. Rossi, with whom Conn Kavanaugh Rosenthal Peisch
& Ford LLP was on brief, for appellants.
     J. Mark Dickison, with whom Ryan A. Ciporkin, Laura S. Sawyer,
and Lawson & Weitzen, LLP, were on brief, for appellee.


                        November 15, 2019
          LYNCH, Circuit Judge.              This is an important case about

Massachusetts trust law which we think is better answered by the

Massachusetts    Supreme    Judicial      Court    (SJC).      Accordingly,     we

certify to the SJC under its Rule 1:03 an unresolved question under

both state common law and state statutes concerning whether a

judgment creditor of the settlor's estate may reach and apply

assets in an irrevocable spendthrift trust after the death of the

self-settlor of the trust.

                                        I.

          Harry De Prins brought this reach and apply action

against a Massachusetts spendthrift trust created by his parents'

murderer, Donald Belanger, to enforce an Arizona wrongful death

judgment against Belanger's estate.              The parties do not dispute

the relevant facts, which we draw from the record.

          In     2000,     Donald      and     Ellen    Belanger      moved   from

Massachusetts to Arizona.           In 2005, their neighbors Armand and

Simonne De Prins filed a lawsuit against the Belangers and others

over shared water rights.           In 2007, the De Prinses obtained a

monetary judgment against the Belangers.

          In    June     2008,   the   Belangers       moved   from   Arizona   to

California.     Ellen Belanger committed suicide there on October 4,

2008, distressed at least in part about the loss of the lawsuit.

Immediately after Ellen Belanger's death, the Belangers' daughter,




                                       - 2 -
Christina Clark, drove to California and convinced her father to

return to Arizona with her.

          One    week   after   his   wife's   suicide,      Donald   Belanger

contacted his attorney, Michael J. Michaeles, about creating an

irrevocable trust.       On October 28, 2008, Belanger created the

Donald A. Belanger Irrevocable Trust Dated October 28, 2008 ("the

Trust"), a self-settled trust that named Michaeles as its sole

trustee and Belanger himself as its sole beneficiary during his

life.   The     Trust   provided   that    Clark    would   become    the   sole

beneficiary     after   Belanger's    death.         It   also   contained     a

spendthrift clause and provided that Belanger could not "alter,

amend, revoke, or terminate" the Trust.            Belanger signed the Trust

on November 3, 2008, and conveyed substantially all of his assets

to Michaeles as trustee.

          Four months after he signed the Trust, on March 2, 2009,

Belanger shot and killed Armand and Simonne De Prins in a Walmart

parking lot in Show Low, Arizona. The next morning, police stopped

Belanger on Interstate 25 in New Mexico.                  Before the officer

approached Belanger's car, Belanger shot and killed himself.

          Michaeles, who was already the trustee of the Trust,

then became personal representative of Belanger's estate, which he

probated in Arizona.