Trust Litigation in Orange County, California

If you are in a dispute over a trust or an inheritance in Orange County, the case is heard by the Superior Court of California, County of Orange. The California Probate Code supplies the rules. It sets the deadlines for contesting a trust and the trustee's duties. It also sets out what the court can order, including an accounting, a trustee's removal, or the return of property.

A disagreement over a trust usually arrives on top of a loss. A parent has died. A sibling now controls the family house or the accounts. The accountings have stopped, or a late amendment cut someone out. Sometimes the person searching is the trustee or executor, who has been accused of misconduct by relatives they still have to face. Most people facing a trust dispute in Orange County are trying to answer a few plain questions. They want to know which court hears the matter, which deadline applies, and what a judge can actually do. This page walks through those answers using the statutes that govern every California county.

What Trust Litigation Involves in Orange County

Trust litigation is a court proceeding in which a beneficiary, trustee, heir or other interested person asks the court to resolve a dispute. The dispute may be about whether a trust is valid, how a trustee has behaved, or who has the right to inherit. In Orange County, that court is the Superior Court of California, County of Orange.

The law the court applies is the California Probate Code, the same body of law used statewide. A dispute over a trust administered in Irvine is governed by the same sections as one involving property in Santa Ana or Anaheim. The local court hears the matter. The statutes come from Sacramento.

A beneficiary is a person entitled to receive something from the trust. A trustee is the person or institution holding and managing trust property for those beneficiaries. A settlor is the person who created the trust. Disputes among these people, and between them and outsiders who took trust property, make up most trust litigation. The California trust litigation overview covers the statewide framework in more depth.

Common Disputes That Reach the Orange County Probate Court

Families from Newport Beach to Fullerton bring the same general categories of dispute to the Superior Court of California, County of Orange.

Trust contests. A trust contest challenges whether a trust or an amendment is valid. Common grounds are that the settlor lacked capacity, was subject to undue influence, or was deceived by fraud. Timing is controlled by the trustee's notification. Probate Code section 16061.7(a) requires a trustee to serve this notification in the events it lists. These include when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable because a settlor dies and whenever the trustee of an irrevocable trust changes; the list is partial. Under Probate Code section 16061.8, a person served with the notification under section 16061.7(a)(1) may not bring an action to contest the trust after the later of two dates:

• 120 days from the date the notification is served on that person, or
• 60 days from the date a copy of the trust terms is delivered to that person during that 120-day period.

The period runs from service of the notification, not from the death. More on the mechanics appears in the guide on how to contest a trust.

Presumed undue influence for certain transferees. Probate Code section 21380 presumes that a gift in an instrument is the product of fraud or undue influence when it goes to certain people. These include the person who drafted the instrument and a person in a fiduciary relationship with the transferor who transcribed it. They also include a care custodian of a dependent adult transferor, if the instrument was signed while the care custodian provided services or within 90 days before or after that period. Certain relatives, cohabitants and employees of those people are also covered.

This is not a rule that every gift to a caregiver or relative is invalid. The presumption shifts the burden of proof. It may generally be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence, but it is conclusive for a transfer to the drafter and the people the statute associates with the drafter. A beneficiary who fails to rebut it bears all costs of the proceeding, including reasonable attorney's fees.

No contest clauses. A no contest clause threatens to take away the gift of anyone who challenges the instrument. Under Probate Code section 21311(a), it may be enforced only against these contests:

• a direct contest brought without probable cause;
• a pleading challenging a transfer on the ground that the property was not the transferor's, but only if the clause expressly says so;
• a creditor's claim or an action based on one, but only if the clause expressly says so.

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 relief will be granted after an opportunity for further investigation or discovery (section 21311(b)). A no contest clause does not automatically disinherit everyone who challenges a trust.

Breach of fiduciary duty, removal and accounting disputes. These claims center on the trustee's conduct after the trust takes effect. They include self-dealing, refusing to share information, withholding accountings, or failing to distribute. The duties and remedies are explained in the next section.

Trustee Duties and What Beneficiaries Can Ask the Court to Do

A beneficiary who suspects something is wrong often has only fragments: a bank statement, a delayed distribution, a sibling who will not return calls. The statutes below define what a trustee owes and what the court may order when those duties are not met.

Loyalty. Under Probate Code section 16004(a), a trustee may not use or deal with trust property for the trustee's own profit or for any purpose unconnected with the trust. The trustee also may not take part in a transaction in which the trustee's interest is adverse to the beneficiary. Section 16004(c) adds a presumption. A transaction during the trust, or while the trustee's influence remains, by which the trustee gains an advantage from a beneficiary is presumed to violate the trustee's duties. The presumption shifts the burden of proof. It does not apply to an agreement about the trustee's hiring or compensation.

Information and accounts. A trustee must keep beneficiaries reasonably informed of the trust and its administration (Probate Code section 16060). Except as section 16069 provides, the trustee must also provide requested information relevant to a beneficiary's interest on reasonable request (section 16061).

The duty to account is narrower. Under Probate Code section 16062, it generally requires an account at least annually, at the termination of the trust, and upon a change of trustee. It runs to each beneficiary to whom income or principal is required, or authorized in the trustee's discretion, to be currently distributed. Exceptions apply, including for certain older trusts. Not every beneficiary is owed an annual account. Even where the trust instrument or a beneficiary's writing waives the account, the court may compel the trustee to account. That requires a showing that a material breach of the trust has reasonably likely occurred.

Petitions to compel. Probate Code section 17200(b)(7) lets a beneficiary ask the court to compel the trustee to act in two situations:

• Information: the trustee has not provided requested information within 60 days after the beneficiary's reasonable written request, and the beneficiary has not received the information within the six months before the request.
• An account: the trustee has not submitted a requested account within 60 days after written request, and no account was made within the six months before the request.

Remedies for breach. When a trustee commits or threatens a breach of trust, a beneficiary or cotrustee may bring a proceeding under Probate Code section 16420(a) for any appropriate purpose on the statute's list:

• compel the trustee to perform the trustee's duties;
• enjoin a breach;
• compel redress by payment of money or otherwise;
• appoint a receiver or temporary trustee;
• remove the trustee;
• set aside the trustee's acts, subject to section 18100;
• reduce or deny compensation;
• impose an equitable lien or constructive trust, subject to section 18100;
• trace and recover wrongfully disposed property, subject to section 18100.

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

Surcharge. A surcharge is a money judgment against a trustee for a breach. Under Probate Code section 16440(a), a trustee may be charged 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;
• any profit that would have accrued to the trust estate.

Surcharge is not automatic. Under section 16440(b), the court may excuse a trustee in whole or in part if the trustee acted reasonably and in good faith under the circumstances known to the trustee, and excusing the trustee would be equitable.

Time limits. Under Probate Code section 16460(a), a breach of trust claim is barred unless a proceeding begins within three years. The starting point depends on what the beneficiary received:

• If the beneficiary received an interim or final account or other written report that adequately disclosed the claim, the three years run from receipt.
• If no such account or report disclosed the claim, or none was received, the three years run from when the beneficiary discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the subject of the claim.

Elder Financial Abuse and the Double-Damages Statute

Probate Code section 859 provides one of the strongest remedies in trust and estate disputes, and it turns on a specific court finding. The court must find that a person did one of three things to property belonging to a trust, a decedent's estate, an elder or a dependent adult (among others):

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

With that finding, the person is liable for twice the value of the property recovered. In addition, except as otherwise required by law, the court may in its discretion award reasonable attorney's fees and costs against that person. Neither the doubled amount nor the fees follow from an accusation alone, and the fees remain discretionary. These remedies are in addition to any others the law provides.

These claims arise wherever older relatives depended on others for help with money. That includes families in Laguna Woods, Seal Beach and Mission Viejo as much as anywhere else in the county. They often travel together with a contest under section 21380 or a petition to recover property. A family member raising these concerns may also be grieving the person whose care they now question, and the statute does not ask anyone to set that aside. It asks the court to look at evidence of conduct.

How the Superior Court of California, County of Orange Handles Trust Petitions

A trust dispute in Orange County typically begins with a petition filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Orange. Petitioners from Irvine, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Orange and Santa Ana all file in that same court. The court publishes official information on its website, and the California courts' self-help pages explain probate and trust proceedings generally.

Under Probate Code section 17200(a), a trustee or beneficiary may petition the court about the internal affairs of a trust or to determine whether a trust exists, except as section 15800 provides. The purposes listed in section 17200(b) include:

• construing the trust instrument;
• determining the validity of a trust provision;
• settling accounts and passing on the trustee's acts;
• instructing the trustee;
• compelling information or an account.

That list is not exhaustive. The guide to a Probate Code 17200 petition explains who may file and what follows.

Once a petition is before it, the court may make any orders and take any action necessary or proper to dispose of the matters presented. This includes appointing a temporary trustee to administer the trust in whole or in part (Probate Code section 17206).

Removal follows the same path. Under Probate Code section 15642(a), a trustee may be removed in three ways: as the trust instrument provides, 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;
• hostility or lack of cooperation among cotrustees that impairs administration;
• failing or declining to act;
• excessive compensation.

That list is partial.

Probate estates follow a parallel track in the same court. Under Probate Code section 8502, a personal representative (the executor or administrator of an estate) 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, or not being qualified;
• wrongfully neglecting the estate, or long neglecting to act;
• removal being otherwise necessary to protect the estate or interested persons;
• any other cause provided by statute.

What to Look for When Evaluating a Trust Litigation Matter in Orange County

The first question is what kind of dispute this is. It may be a validity challenge, a breach of duty claim, a demand for an account, a removal petition or an effort to recover property. Each rests on a different statute, and each has its own timing.

Those deadlines do not line up with one another:

• Contest deadline (section 16061.8): runs from service of the trustee's notification or delivery of the trust terms.
• Breach of trust claims (section 16460(a)): three years, measured from an adequate account or report, or from discovery.
• Petitions to compel (section 17200(b)(7)): turn on a written request and a 60-day wait.

A reader unsure which applies should not assume there is time. The documents usually answer the question: the trust and any amendments, any notification received and the date it arrived, accountings, and written requests.

A trustee facing accusations reads the same statutes from the other side. The good-faith excuse in section 16440(b) and the probable cause standard in section 21311(b) matter as much to that reader as the remedies do to a beneficiary. Whether the dispute involves a trust administered in Irvine, an estate in Newport Beach, or a family disagreement in Anaheim or Fullerton, the governing law is the California Probate Code.

This site's focus is disputes. Questions about drafting a trust, estate planning or uncontested administration fall outside what this site covers. A reader with a dispute may submit an inquiry describing it.

Discussing a Trust or Probate Dispute in Orange County

An Orange County trust dispute often turns on a few documents and a few dates. Those include the trust and any late amendment, the date a trustee's notification was served, the accountings or their absence, and the record of how property moved. An attorney looking at a matter like this would look first at those papers and that timeline, and at the conduct each side points to. For readers whose question is about setting up a trust or handling an estate nobody disputes, this site is not the right starting point.

To discuss a dispute like this with an attorney, you can contact California Trust Litigation Lawyers to request a consultation about your dispute.