Trusts and Estates Case Alerts

Summary: A proposed conservatee must appear at the conservatorship hearing unless certain exceptions are met. Read more

Summary: A former beneficiary of a trust whose interest was eliminated by a subsequent amendment has standing to challenge the subsequent amendment in the Probate Court. Read more

Where the decedent kept a “permanent record” listing lifetime gifts to his children, the gifts were properly treated as advances on inheritance and deducted from at-death transfers under the trust. Read more

Summary: A decedent’s will can contain clear and convincing evidence to defeat the presumption of a right of survivorship to a joint tenancy account. Read more

Proposed LPS conservatees do not have a constitutional right to refuse to testify at their own conservatorship trials, as they are not similarly situated to, or considered, criminal defendants. Read more

Summary: In an action to reappoint an LPS conservator, the petitioner need not prove as an additional element that the conservatee is unwilling or unable to voluntarily accept treatment. Read more

Summary: The timely filing of a creditor’s claim tolls the one-year statute to bring claims against a decedent, and the creditor then has 90 days to bring suit after the rejection of a creditor’s claim, regardless of how long after the expiration of the one-year statute such rejection occurs. Read more

Summary: A finding of bad faith is a prerequisite to an award of double damages under Probate Code section 859 based on a theory of undue influence. Read more

Summary: Where the trust expressly required that amendments be made by a signed writing, handwritten interlineations on a trust instrument did not constitute a valid amendment because they were not signed. Read more

Summary: The statutory time limit for commencement of a jury trial following a proposed conservatee’s demand is not mandatory, and failure to commence trial within statutory confines is not grounds for earlier expiration of the conservatorship. Read more