In May 2019, Devine Millimet’s Probate Litigation team received a favorable outcome in a case involving a long-running dispute between siblings over the management of their parents’ estates. After a three-day hearing, Judge King determined that while the client had in fact distributed assets from her mother’s trust contrary to the trust terms, she was shielded from liability due to her reasonable reliance on the advice of her former attorney. Attorneys David Eby and Joshua Bearce successfully defended the client, obtaining trustee compensation for the travel costs of overseeing the trust property, and even obtaining an award of attorney’s fees for defending the petition.
In his opinion, Probate Judge David King described this as a “textbook” case of when a trustee may find shelter in an advice of counsel defense. Judge King noted that the client was responsible in promptly seeking counsel after her mother’s death and in selecting the attorney who originally drafted the trust documents. He also noted that there was no evidence that the client “shopped around” for advice from a lawyer who would validate any pre-established plans to improperly distribute assets from the trust. Our team successfully argued that the client relied on her prior attorney in good faith and should not be punished for her prior attorney’s misunderstanding of the nature of the trust.
