Probate

A special needs trust is one established for a severely disabled person.  The trust is designed to supplement public assistance the beneficiary receives without rendering the beneficiary ineligible for that public assistance.  This decision holds that the trustee has discretion under a special needs trust to pay for goods and services for the beneficiary that are not supplied by public… Read More

Following Balistreri v. Balistreri (2022) 75 Cal.App.5th 511, this decision holds that if a trust provides a procedure or method for amending the trust, whether phrased as exclusive or optional, any amendment must conform to that procedure or method; otherwise it is invalid.  Prob. Code 15402’s “qualification ‘[u]nless the trust instrument provides otherwise’ indicates that if any modification method is… Read More

The trial court correctly surcharged defendant who was trustee of the decedent Pool's trust and held his power of attorney for funds that defendant deposited in a bank account held jointly with Pool rather than in a trust account for the benefit of the trust beneficiaries.  By depositing the funds in the joint account, defendant essentially made himself the death… Read More

The probate exception to federal court jurisdiction applies only  to cases in which the federal courts would be called on to “(1) probate or annul a will, (2) administer a decedent’s estate, or (3) assume in rem jurisdiction over property that is in the custody of the probate court.”  Goncalves v. Rady Children’s Hosp. San Diego, 865 F.3d 1237, 1252… Read More

A lawyer has a duty to a nonclient third party only if the client’s intent to benefit that third party (in the way the third party asserts in their malpractice claim) is “clear,” “certain” and “undisputed.”  Signs of the client's intent do not meet that high standard if there is ground for dispute as to whom the client wished to… Read More

Estate of Cornelious (1984) 35 Cal.3d 461 remains good law.  Under Probate Code 7540(a), a child is conclusively presumed to be issue of the man married to the child's mother, so long as the two were cohabiting at the time of conception and of birth.  Such a child is not allowed, at least for inheritance purposes, to prove that he… Read More

Ordinarily, the beneficiary of a revocable trust lacks standing to sue concerning the trust so long as the trustor is alive and can still revoke the trust.  However, the beneficiary may still have standing if the trustor is incompetent.  To establish standing, the beneficiary need only allege that the trustor is incompetent. Read More

Crane died in San Diego.  Jernigan claimed she was his heir by reason of her having been raised by relations, the Boodgoods, who raised Jernigan in Indiana and held her out as their daughter after she was abandoned by her natural parents.  Under Prob. Code 6453 and the Uniform Parentage Act (Prob. Code, 7611), Jernigan is presumed to be the… Read More

A petition to recover estate property under Probate Code 850(a)(1)(c) is not the proper vehicle for obtaining communications and documents from a temporary conservator of the plaintiff's estate; those documents are not the type of personal property interests that can properly be sought through and adjudicated in a section 850 petition. Read More

Probate Code 8402(a)(4) provides that to be eligible to serve as an executor or administrator of an estate, a person must be a resident of the US.  This decision interprets the statute as meaning that an executor or administrator must be "domiciled" in the US--that is, reside in the US with the intention of remaining there.  Here, the proposed administrator--the… Read More

Under Probate Code 16061.8 and 21311, as amended in 2010, a no contest clause may be enforced against a beneficiary of a will or trust if the beneficiary files a "direct contest without probable cause."  A direct contest is one that alleges the invalidity of a protected instrument or one or more of its terms, based on one or more… Read More

This decision holds that (1) a probate court does not have inherent equitable power to award attorney fees except from a beneficiary's share of a trust or estate involved in the litigation, but (2) Probate Code 15642(d), the court may award attorney fees against a party payable from his personal assets for filing a bad faith petition to remove a… Read More

Under Probate Code 145, a spouse waives his or her interest in the other spouse's estate by entering into "a complete property settlement agreement after or in contemplation of a separation, dissolution or annulment of their marriage."  This decision holds that to operate as such a waiver, the settlement agreement need not recite that it waives that right nor that… Read More

World Services holds intellectual property rights in Narcotics Anonymous' publications as trustee under a trust created by a loose association of Narcotics Anonymous adherents, known as the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous.  The Autonomous Region sued World Services claiming it breached its fiduciary duties under the trust.  This opinion affirms dismissal of the action on the ground that Autonomous Region lacks… Read More

Appeals from probate orders did not automatically stay the parties' ability to settle their dispute.  Even though their settlement required dismissal of the pending appeals, the settlement was effective and did not violate the automatic stay on appeal under CCP 916. Read More

Under Prob. Code 1003, a court may, but is not required to, appoint a guardian ad litem for minors named as parties in the action. If the court doesn't appoint a guardian, it must itself protect the minor's interests.  Here, a guardian ad litem was appointed for the minors in related litigation, but not in this proceeding.  The guardian ad… Read More

If a trust provides a procedure or method for amending the trust, whether phrased as exclusive or optional, any amendment must conform to that procedure or method; otherwise it is invalid.  Prob. Code 15402’s “qualification ‘[u]nless the trust instrument provides otherwise’ indicates that if any modification method is specified in the trust, that method must be used to amend the… Read More

The California Department of Health Care Services administers the MediCal program. For purpose of computing a person's financial ability to pay for medical care during his lifetime, the department omits the worth of his residence.  However, after the person's death, the department is entitled to collect reimbursement for medical care it paid for during the person's lifetime from the person's… Read More

Plaintiff was the executrix as well as a beneficiary of her parents' estate. She claimed that a relative and co-beneficiary conspired with two other defendants to fraudulently induce her, as executrix, to take a large loan at usurious rates secured by the parents' house, the estate's principal asset, after which the co-beneficiary misappropriated most of the loan funds.  This decision… Read More

A fiduciary owes a duty to disclose material facts to the beneficiary.  The beneficiary is under no duty to investigate whether the fiduciary has told the truth or disclosed all the material facts.  Hence, when a conservatee moves to set aside an order approving the conservator's accounting on the ground of misrepresentations in the conservator's accounting and petition for approval,… Read More