Trust Litigation in Fresno County, California

If you are caught up in a dispute over a trust, will or inheritance tied to Fresno County, the case is heard by the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno, and it is decided under the California Probate Code. That court can rule on trust contests, compel a trustee to account, remove a trustee or executor, and, where the facts support it, order the return of property taken wrongfully.

Most people facing a trust or inheritance dispute in Fresno County did not expect to be there. A parent has died, a trust has surfaced that reads differently than the family assumed, and the person in charge of it may be a sibling, a stepparent or a longtime helper. Some readers are beneficiaries who cannot get a straight answer about a house, a farm or a bank account. Others are trustees or executors who have been accused of something and want to know what the law actually requires of them. This page sets out which court hears these disputes, which California rules apply, and what the court can and cannot order.

What Trust Litigation Involves in Fresno County

The Superior Court of California, County of Fresno is the court that hears trust, probate and inheritance disputes arising in this Central Valley county. Its official website, fresno.courts.ca.gov, is the place to confirm current court information. This page does not list courthouse addresses, departments, judges, hearing schedules, local rules or filing fees. Those details change, and the court's own site is the reliable source for them.

Trust litigation means a court case about an existing trust: who controls it, whether it is valid, and whether the person managing it has done the job lawfully. The disputes that reach the Fresno County court include:

• Trust contests: challenges to whether a trust, or an amendment to it, is valid.
• Breach of fiduciary duty claims: claims that a trustee has broken the legal duties owed to beneficiaries. A fiduciary is a person legally bound to act in someone else's interest.
• Trustee removal petitions: requests that the court replace a trustee.
• Accounting disputes: fights over a trustee's refusal to show how trust money and property have been handled.
• Undue influence and elder financial abuse claims: allegations that someone pressured a vulnerable person or took that person's property.
• Will contests and estate disputes: challenges to a will and to the executor, called the personal representative, who manages a probate estate.

The California Probate Code governs every one of these matters statewide. The rules are the same whether the trust property sits in Fresno County or elsewhere in California. What is local is the court where the case is heard. For an overview of how these cases work across the state, see this site's guide to California trust litigation.

Contesting a Trust in Fresno County

A trust contest is a legal challenge to the validity of a trust instrument, meaning the written trust document, or to one of its provisions, such as a late-life amendment. In Fresno County the contest is filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno.

The deadline usually starts with a notice from the trustee. Under Probate Code section 16061.7(a)(1), a trustee must serve a "notification by the trustee" when a revocable trust, or part of one, becomes irrevocable because a settlor has died. The settlor is the person who created the trust. The statute requires the notification in other events too, including whenever the trustee of an irrevocable trust changes. That list is partial.

Probate Code section 16061.8 then sets the time limit. A person served with that notification cannot bring an action to contest the trust more than 120 days after the date the notification is served on them, or 60 days after the date a copy of the trust's terms is delivered to them during that 120-day period, whichever is later. Two separate events can start the clock: service of the notification, and delivery of the trust terms within the 120 days. The later of the two deadlines controls. The period does not run from the date of death.

The usual grounds for a trust contest include:

• Lack of capacity. The person who signed did not have the mental ability the law requires at the time of signing. Capacity is measured when the document was made. A diagnosis such as dementia does not, by itself, make a trust invalid.
• Undue influence. Someone used improper pressure to change what the settlor did. The next section covers this ground.
• Fraud. The settlor was deceived into signing, or into signing something different from what they believed.
• Forgery. The signature, or the document itself, is not genuine.

Families often learn about a contest deadline only after the trustee's notice has already arrived. Reading the date of service closely matters for that reason. This site's guide on how to contest a trust walks through the process in more detail.

Undue Influence and the Presumption Under Probate Code Section 21380

Undue influence has the meaning Probate Code section 86 gives it by reference. In many cases the person who claims undue influence must prove it. California law shifts that burden for certain gifts.

Under Probate Code section 21380(a), a provision of an instrument that makes a donative transfer is presumed to be the product of fraud or undue influence when it goes to certain people. A donative transfer is a gift, such as a share of a trust or a bequest in a will. Those people include:

• the person who drafted the instrument;
• a person who transcribed the instrument, or caused it to be transcribed, and who was in a fiduciary relationship with the transferor at the time; and
• a care custodian of a transferor who is a dependent adult, but only if the instrument was signed while the care custodian was providing services, or within 90 days before or after that period.

A presumption is a legal starting point. This one affects the burden of proof. The person receiving the gift must rebut it, and that takes clear and convincing evidence. There is one exception. For a transfer to the drafter, and to the people section 21380(c) associates with the drafter, the presumption is conclusive and cannot be rebutted. A beneficiary who fails to rebut the presumption bears all costs of the proceeding, including reasonable attorney's fees.

The presumption is narrow. It does not make every gift to a caregiver, relative or helper invalid. A daughter who cared for her father and received a larger share is not automatically presumed to have exerted undue influence. Whether the presumption applies depends on who drafted the document, who the recipient was, and when it was signed. These claims are litigated in the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno.

Trustee Duties, Breach of Trust, and Removal in California

A trustee's central obligation is loyalty. Probate Code section 16004(a) says a trustee must not use or deal with trust property for the trustee's own profit or for any purpose unconnected with the trust. A trustee also must not take part in any transaction in which the trustee has an interest adverse to a beneficiary. Living rent-free in a trust-owned house, or selling trust land to oneself, are the kinds of conduct this rule addresses.

Section 16004(c) adds a presumption. A transaction between the trustee and a beneficiary, made during the trust or while the trustee's influence over the beneficiary remains, is presumed to violate the trustee's fiduciary duties if the trustee obtains an advantage from it. This presumption affects the burden of proof. It does not apply to an agreement about the trustee's hiring or compensation.

Trustees also owe duties of transparency. Under Probate Code section 16060, the trustee must keep beneficiaries reasonably informed of the trust and its administration. Under Probate Code section 16062, except as otherwise provided in that section and in section 16064, the trustee must account at least annually, at the termination of the trust, and upon a change of trustee. That duty runs to each beneficiary to whom income or principal is required, or authorized in the trustee's discretion, to be currently distributed, with exceptions in sections 16062 and 16064. An account is a formal report of what came in, what went out and what remains. Not every beneficiary is owed an annual account. Under Probate Code section 16064, even where the trust instrument or a beneficiary's writing waives the account, the court may compel the trustee to account on a showing that a material breach of the trust is reasonably likely.

When a trustee commits or threatens to commit a breach of trust, Probate Code section 16420(a) lets a beneficiary or cotrustee bring a proceeding for remedies including:

• compelling the trustee to perform the trustee's duties;
• enjoining, or stopping, a breach;
• compelling the trustee to redress a breach by payment of money or otherwise;
• appointing a receiver or temporary trustee to take over the trust property;
• removing the trustee;
• subject to section 18100, setting aside acts of the trustee;
• reducing or denying the trustee's compensation;
• subject to section 18100, imposing an equitable lien or a constructive trust on trust property; and
• subject to section 18100, tracing and recovering property wrongfully disposed of.

A constructive trust is a court order treating property as held for its rightful owner. Section 16420(b) says these remedies do not prevent resort to any other appropriate remedy.

Removal has its own statute. Under Probate Code section 15642(a), a trustee may be removed in accordance with the trust instrument, by the court on its own motion, or on petition of a settlor, cotrustee or beneficiary under section 17200. The grounds in section 15642(b) include breach of trust, insolvency or unfitness to administer the trust, hostility or lack of cooperation among cotrustees that impairs administration, failing or declining to act, and excessive compensation.

Money damages against a trustee are called a surcharge. Under Probate Code section 16440(a), a trustee who commits a breach is chargeable with whichever of the following is appropriate: any loss or depreciation in value resulting from the breach, with interest; any profit the trustee made through the breach, with interest; or any profit that would have accrued to the trust had the breach not occurred. A surcharge is not automatic. Under section 16440(b), the court may excuse a trustee who acted reasonably and in good faith under the circumstances known to the trustee, in whole or in part, if doing so would be equitable. A trustee facing accusations in Fresno County has that defense available, and a beneficiary pressing claims should expect the court to weigh it.

Compelling Accountings and Information from a Trustee

Probate Code section 16061 requires a trustee, on reasonable request by a beneficiary, to report requested information about the trust's administration that is relevant to that beneficiary's interest, except as section 16069 provides.

When requests go unanswered, the court can step in. Probate Code section 17200(a) allows a trustee or beneficiary to petition the court concerning the internal affairs of a trust or to determine whether a trust exists, except as section 15800 provides. The kinds of proceedings listed in section 17200(b) are examples, not a complete list. They include construing the trust's language, determining the validity of a trust provision, and deciding who receives property when the trust ends.

Section 17200(b)(7) addresses silence directly, with two parallel tests:

• A petition to compel information is available if the trustee has not provided the requested information within 60 days after the beneficiary's reasonable written request, and the beneficiary has not received that information within the six months before the request.
• A petition to compel an account is available if the trustee has not submitted a requested account within 60 days after a written request, and no account has been made within the six months before the request.

Both tests depend on a written request, so the date of that request matters. Once a petition is before it, the court has broad authority. Under Probate Code section 17206, the court may make any orders and take any other action necessary or proper to dispose of the matters presented, including appointing a temporary trustee to administer the trust in whole or in part. In Fresno County these petitions are filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno. For more on how these petitions work, see this site's guide to the Probate Code 17200 petition.

No-Contest Clauses in Fresno County Trust Disputes

Many beneficiaries in Fresno County reasonably hesitate to raise concerns because the trust contains a no-contest clause. A no-contest clause is a provision saying that a beneficiary who challenges the document loses their gift. California limits how far these clauses reach.

Under Probate Code section 21311(a), a no-contest clause may be enforced only against these types of contests:

• a direct contest brought without probable cause;
• a pleading challenging a transfer of property on the ground that it was not the transferor's property at the time of the transfer, but only if the clause expressly says it applies to that pleading; and
• the filing of a creditor's claim or prosecution of an action based on it, but only if the clause expressly says it applies to that claim.

Probable cause is the key protection. Under section 21311(b), probable cause exists if, at the time of filing, the facts known to the contestant would cause a reasonable person to believe there is a reasonable likelihood the requested relief will be granted after an opportunity for further investigation or discovery. Discovery is the formal exchange of documents and testimony in a lawsuit.

A no-contest clause therefore does not disinherit everyone who challenges a trust or will. Many petitions are not direct contests at all. A request for an accounting, for example, does not challenge the validity of the document. Whether a clause can be enforced is decided by the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno, in the context of the specific proceeding and the specific wording of the clause.

Recovery of Property and Double Damages Under Probate Code Section 859

Disputes over property sometimes go beyond mismanagement. A relative may have moved money out of a parent's account, kept the title to a house, or held onto valuables that belong to a trust or estate. Probate Code section 859 provides a significant remedy for those situations, but only after a specific finding.

The court must find that a person did one of three things to property belonging to a trust or a decedent's estate, among the other protected owners the statute names:

1. wrongfully took, concealed or disposed of the property in bad faith;
2. took, concealed or disposed of it by the use of undue influence in bad faith; or
3. took, concealed or disposed of it through the commission of elder or dependent adult financial abuse.

When the court makes that finding, the person is liable for twice the value of the property recovered by the action. In addition, except as otherwise required by law, the court may, in its discretion, award reasonable attorney's fees and costs against the person found liable.

None of this is automatic. Without the court's finding, there is no double recovery, and fees remain discretionary even with it. A person accused of taking property is entitled to contest the claim, and the court decides what happened. Section 859 claims arising in this part of the Central Valley are litigated in the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno.

Statute of Limitations for Breach of Trust Claims

Probate Code section 16460(a) sets two branches for the deadline on a breach of trust claim:

• When a disclosing account or report was received: if the beneficiary received an interim or final account in writing, or another written report, that adequately discloses the existence of the claim, the claim is barred unless a proceeding is started within three years after receipt. A report adequately discloses a claim if it gives enough information that the beneficiary knows of the claim or reasonably should have inquired into it.
• When no such account or report was received: the claim must be brought within three years after the beneficiary discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the subject of the claim.

Beneficiaries who were handed a thick account years ago and set it aside are often surprised to learn that it may have started the clock. That is one reason the dates on old reports deserve a careful look.

Compensation disputes have a separate notice rule. A trustee is entitled to reasonable compensation when the trust does not set it. Under Probate Code section 15686(b), a trustee may not charge an increased fee without first giving at least 60 days' written notice to each beneficiary entitled to an account under section 16062, each beneficiary who received the last preceding account, and each beneficiary who has asked in writing for notice of an increase and given an address. Under section 15686(c), if a beneficiary files a section 17200 petition to review the increase or to remove the trustee, and serves it on the trustee before the 60 days expire, the increase does not take effect until the court orders otherwise or the petition is dismissed. These proceedings, like the others on this page, are started in the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno.

Will Contests and Estate Disputes in Fresno County

Some Fresno County disputes involve a will and a probate estate rather than a trust. The same court hears them.

A will contest before the will is admitted to probate follows Probate Code section 8250. The contestant files an objection to probate of the will. A summons is then issued and served, with a copy of the objection, on the people entitled to notice. The summons directs those people to file a written pleading in response within 30 days after service.

After admission, a different path applies. Under Probate Code section 8270, within 120 days after a will is admitted to probate, an interested person may petition to revoke the probate of the will, setting out written grounds of opposition. That option is not available to a party to a will contest or to a person who had actual notice of a will contest in time to join it. There is one exception. A person who was a minor, or who was incompetent and had no guardian or conservator, when the will was admitted may petition at any time before the order for final distribution.

Capacity to make a will is tested at the time the will is made. Under Probate Code section 6100.5, a person lacks that capacity if, at that time, they cannot understand the nature of the testamentary act, cannot understand and recollect the nature and situation of their property, or cannot remember and understand their relations to living descendants, spouse and parents and others whose interests the will affects. The statute also lists other grounds. A dementia diagnosis alone does not answer the question.

Executors can be removed too. Under Probate Code section 8502, a personal representative may be removed for any of these causes:

• wasting, embezzling, mismanaging or committing a fraud on the estate, or being about to do so;
• being incapable of properly executing the duties of the office, or otherwise not being qualified;
• wrongfully neglecting the estate, or long neglecting to perform any act as personal representative;
• removal being otherwise necessary to protect the estate or interested persons; and
• any other cause provided by statute.

Submitting an Inquiry About a Fresno County Trust or Estate Dispute

A reader with a dispute arising in Fresno County, or elsewhere in the Central Valley, may use this site to request a consultation.

This site covers disputes only. It does not offer estate-planning advice, explain how to create or amend a trust or will, or address estate or trust administration when nobody disagrees. Readers who want to check an attorney's license status can use the State Bar of California's site at calbar.ca.gov. General court information and self-help material are available through the California Courts site at courts.ca.gov.

Discussing a Trust or Probate Dispute in Fresno County

A Fresno County trust or estate dispute often turns on a handful of documents and dates. Those include the trust and any amendments, the date the trustee's notification was served, the dates of written requests for information, any accounts received, and the record of what happened to the house, the land or the accounts. A consultation is a chance to put those papers in front of an attorney, who can say which deadline and which remedy may apply to them. For readers who are still deciding whether they need legal help at all, the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno's website and the California Courts self-help material may be a useful first stop.

To discuss a Fresno County dispute with an attorney, request a consultation about your dispute through California Trust Litigation Lawyers.