Trusts and Estates Case Alerts

Summary:  In LPS conservatorship proceedings, counsel may validly waive a conservatee’s jury trial right absent evidence that the conservatee was unaware of the right, that counsel acted without authority, or that the waiver contradicted the conservatee’s expressed wishes. Read more

Summary:  A claim for intentional interference with expected inheritance (IIEI) failed where it was alleged that a trustor was prevented from executing a trust amendment with a revised distributive scheme, because the beneficiary had standing to seek relief in probate court and thus an had an adequate probate remedy. Read more

Intended beneficiaries of charitable trust had special interest standing to sue to enforce charitable trust.   Read more

The unilateral fee shifting provision in the financial elder abuse statute (Welf. & Inst. Code section 15657.5(a)) does not bar prevailing defendants from obtaining cost-of-proof fees incurred in proving true facts that plaintiff refused to admit in discovery without any reasonable basis under Code of Civil Procedure (“CCP”) section 2033.420. Read more

Elder Abuse Act demands both a high level of culpability and sufficiently detailed allegations demonstrating it. Read more

Mismanagement under Probate Code sections 8402(a)(3) and 8502(a) includes pre-appointment conduct that badly, improperly, or unskillfully handles an estate asset and may result in denial of appointment of a named executor. Read more

Revocation of a will by cancellation must occur by physical alteration of the will and a separate, stand-alone document does not constitute a subsequent will unless it also transfers property upon death.  Read more

Merely being a proposed conservatee’s neighbor is insufficient to qualify as an interested person or friend with standing to file a petition for conservatorship. Read more

A demurrer may be filed any time at or before the initial hearing in a probate case. Read more

Leslie Knoles (Decedent) and Ruth Catello (Catello) co-owned real property originally as joint tenants with rights of survivorship.  A few weeks before her death, Decedent recorded a quitclaim deed she had granted to herself that, if valid, severed the joint tenancy and created a tenancy in common with no right Read more