January 2016

Woman reading bookOn a road trip over the holidays, I listened to John Grisham’s Sycamore Row, as artfully read by Michael Beck. Published in 2013, it’s a sequel to Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, and again features young country lawyer Jake Brigance. This time, instead of an accused man, he’s defending the handwritten will of Seth Hubbard. Hubbard, a shrewd businessman, had a terminal illness and near the end of his life wrote a new will to favor his housekeeper over this two children.

Are will contests in California like the contest featured in John Grisham’s legal thriller? Yes and no.

Department 129 SignThis month Judge Steven M. Gevercer will replace Judge David F. De Alba as the probate judge in Department 129 of the Sacramento County Superior Court. Judge Gevercer was appointed to the bench by Governor Jerry Brown in 2012 and previously served in the California Attorney General’s Office.

Judges typically spend a year or two in Department 129 before moving on to other assignments within the court. Fortunately for all, the dedicated court staff who support Department 129 provide continuity over the years.

Hands of Elderly Parent and DaughterMost will and trust contests in California start several months after the death of the person who created the document. Such litigation has a forensic quality: did Mom have sufficient mental capacity back when she signed the will/trust, or was she the victim of undue influence? Mom is not around to testify as to what she thought and wanted, nor can expert witnesses meet her to evaluate her capacity. If the documents were executed many years ago, the trail of evidentiary breadcrumbs may be faint. A lawyer who contests old estate planning documents may find inspiration in Sherlock Holmes.

Increasingly, however, the fight over Mom’s trust will flare during her lifetime. For example, if Mom has moderate Alzheimer’s disease and a family member petitions the court to appoint a conservator over her estate (i.e., financial affairs), the court may review Mom’s estate plan and modify its terms if appropriate. Through the “substituted judgment” process laid out in the California Probate Code, the court for example might cancel a recent trust amendment on the ground that Mom did not sign it of her own free will, thereby restoring the prior version of the trust. In the conservatorship setting, the court need not wait for Mom’s death to evaluate the validity of the trust documents, and an earlier review may lead to a better result if evidence presently available, such as the testimony of a key witness, may be lost with the passage of time.

Trustee fees are common flash points in the administration of family trusts. Trustees may put in hundreds of hours cleaning out and selling the family home, dealing with accountants, lawyers, and realtors, and otherwise working to distribute assets out to the beneficiaries. A diligent trustee provides a valuable service and should be compensated for his or her time.

From the beneficiary’s perspective, however, it may come as a surprise that Junior has obtained a handsome trustee fee by writing a check to himself. The beneficiary may feel that Junior should act as a volunteer and/or may believe that Junior has acted improperly in trust administration such that he deserves no fee.