Probate Trusts



[01/10] Exarhos v. Exarhos
A person who sues as a decedent's successor in interest may be held liable for contractual attorney's fees under Civil Code section 1717 in an action commenced and pursued by the alleged successor in interest. Since the alleged successor in interest in this case would have been entitled to an award of attorney's fees if he had prevailed in the action, he is liable for the prevailing defendant's attorney's fees.

[01/02] Estate of Larsen v. Murr
In decedent's estate's 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit arising when a Denver police officer shot and killed decedent outside his home while responding to a 911 call, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where no constitutional violation occurred in the case.

[12/13] Cabral v. Soares
In suit alleging that former husband was substantially delinquent in payments of spousal and child support, and that former mother-in-law was induced to change her will to leave to her daughter the one-third of her estate that she had previously designated to go to plaintiff's former husband, with the understanding that daughter would subsequently "get that money to" him, sustaining of demurrer is reversed where the court erred in refusing to grant leave to amend to correctly plead a cause of action under which plaintiff ultimately may be entitled to prevail.

[12/05] Brown v. Labow
In case involving loss of a specific gift of stock to a beneficiary of a revocable trust after the trustor was declared incompetent, dismissal of petition seeking determination that the liquidation and dissolution of company did not cause an ademption of the specific gifts of its stock is reversed where there was no substantial evidence the creator of a trust intended to adeem a stock gift by expressing an intent to sell the business prior to the competency proceedings. Defendant had no authority or power to unilaterally dispose of property which belonged to the conservatorship estate.

[12/04] Washington Mut. Bank v. Blechman
In case arising from property sold through foreclosure to trustee of a trust, declaratory judgment for plaintiffs finding that plaintiffs were indispensable parties to prior action to set aside sale, and that trustee's sale was valid and that trustee had good title is affirmed where seller and trustee are indispensable parties to a lawsuit which seeks to set aside a trustee's sale in foreclosure.

[12/03] In re Estate of Wright
In a probate action, partial grant of a motion to disqualify petitioner-respondent's counsel brought by petitioner-Northern Trust Company, in its capacity as trustee, is affirmed where counsel represented an adverse party in a substantially related matter.

[11/29] Estate of Tamulis v. Comm'r of Internal Revenue
In a suit over the denial of a tax deduction for a charitable remainder trust that had not satisfied the requirements for converting to a deductible charitable remainder "unitrust", judgment for the IRS is affirmed where the requirements for converting the trust were not unimportant or unclear, thus precluding application of the substantial compliance doctrine.

[11/26] Struck v. Cook County Public Guardian
In a suit alleging that a court-appointed guardian for plaintiff's mother violated the plaintiff's constitutional rights by refusing to let him visit her and denying him access to her records, mail, and assets, dismissal of the suit is affirmed where the action was barred by a doctrine that excepts from federal jurisdiction certain probate and domestic-relations cases.

[11/21] Estate of Bantsolas v. Bantsolas
In the matter of a citation to recover assets proceeding pursuant to section 16-1 of the Probate Act, dismissal of the citation is affirmed over claims that the proposed amendment was invalid because it was not accepted prior to Baseleky Bantolas's death, and the trial court erred in determining that it was the estate's burden to prove such.

[11/19] Murphy v. Burch
In case involving easement, judgment for plaintiff trustee of an education trust, and owner of neighboring property that lacks access to a public road, is reversed where an easement by necessity did not and does not exist across defendants' property.

[11/16] In re: the Estate of Roller
In a suit seeking to exclude petitioner from the Andrew Roller Trust by virtue of the fact that he was an adopted child, orders granting summary judgement in favor of respondents and declaring that petitioner was not entitled to receive any proceeds from the Trust are reversed where the terms of the Trust do not overcome the statutory presumption that favors including adopted children in written instruments created prior to September 1, 1955.

[11/15] Estate of Jelke v. Comm'r of IRS
In estate tax case involving the proper valuation for estate tax purposes of a stock interest owned by the decedent in a closely-held, investment holding company, the tax court's computation the net asset value of the holding company, to determine the value of the decedent's interest for estate tax purposes, is vacated and remanded to apply the methodology set forth in Estate of Dunn v. Comm'r, 301 F.3d 339 (5th Cir. 2002), to recalculate the net asset value of the holding company on the date of decedent's death, and his interest therein, using a dollar-for-dollar reduction of the entire amount in built-in capital gains tax liability, under the assumption that the holding company is liquidated on the date of death and all assets sold.

[11/09] Estate of Gerson v. Comm'r of Internal Revenue
A tax court's decision to assess a tax of over $1 million on the proceeds of an irrevocable trust under the generation-skipping transfer tax is affirmed over the estate's claim that a grandfather clause protected the assets from taxation where an applicable treasury regulation reasonably construed an ambiguous statutory provision, and led to a result contrary to the estate's argument.

[10/31] Principal Life Ins. Co. v. Peterson
In dispute over life insurance proceeds arising from the murder of Laci Peterson by Scott Peterson, and where Scott is the named beneficiary of a $250,000 policy, summary judgment for administrator of Laci's estate, disentitling Scott from collecting any proceeds, is affirmed as Scott's criminal conviction for the first degree murder of his wife was substantial and uncontradicted evidence that he feloniously and intentionally killed her, and thus, the administrator met her burden under Probate Code section 254(b).

[10/29] In re: Estate of Talty
In an appeal from multiple orders and judgments entered by the circuit court with regard to the probate estate of Thomas Talty, all orders and judgments are affirmed over multiple claims of error by the deceased's brother regarding a jointly owned business and jointly owned property.

[10/22] Mota v. Superior Ct. (Villalobos)
In case arising out of a series of acrimonious disputes between the beneficiaries of a revocable trust, probate court's order denying motion to compel further responses to discovery requests is vacated where: 1) petitioner is entitled to conduct discovery relevant to her objections to the Distribution Petition; and 2) she need not file a Probate Code section 850 petition to establish her entitlement to an offset against real party's share of the trust estate.

[10/19] Betts v. City Nat'l Bank
Probate court ruling on plaintiff's application under Probate Code section 21320 to determine whether a proposed probate court petition would constitute a contest to a testamentary trust under which he is a beneficiary is reversed where the trial court erred in concluding that the second proposed petition would constitute a contest to the trust's exculpation provision.

[10/18] In the Matter of the Estate of Wallens
In proceeding seeking judicial settlement of accounts of a co-trustee, finding that father, as co-trustee of beneficiary daughter's trust left to her by her grandfather, did not engage in self-dealing, in breach of his fiduciary obligations to daughter by his use of trust funds for her private secondary school education and other expenses, is reversed where a remittal was necessary for Surrogate's Court to conduct a hearing as to whether father carried out his fiduciary duty as a co-trustee to act, in good faith, in his daughter's interests.

[09/28] Steinhart v. County of Los Angeles
In an action brought for refund of real estate taxes paid, dismissal pursuant to defendant-county's demurrer is reversed as plaintiff's acquisition of a life estate in real property upon the death of her sister was not a transfer "substantially equal to the value of the fee interest," for purposes of constituting a change of ownership so as to trigger a reassessment.

[09/24] Altenheim German Home v. Bank of America
In a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief to establish rights under a trust agreement, grant of defendant's motion to dismiss is affirmed over a claim that the plain language of the trust agreement shows that the trustor did not intend to treat adopted great-grandchildren as beneficiaries because the agreement expressly includes adopted grandchildren as beneficiaries but is silent as to adopted great-grandchildren.

Return to Main Screen

Practice Area

© 2008 by Mugg & Tang, LLP. All rights reserved. Disclaimer | Site Map

Firm Site ® designed and hosted by Tritiger Media Inc.