Trust Litigation in San Mateo County

If a dispute involves a trust, a will, an estate or a trustee or executor in San Mateo County, it is heard by the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo, under the Probate Code, which lets beneficiaries, heirs and fiduciaries contest documents, compel accountings, seek removal and recover property.

Most people facing a trust dispute in San Mateo County did not go looking for one. A parent has died, a trust has become irrevocable, and a sibling or a longtime helper is now the trustee, or a late amendment has changed who inherits the family home. Some readers are beneficiaries who have asked for information and heard nothing back. Others are trustees or executors who have just been accused of misconduct and want to understand what the other side can actually ask a court to do. This page sets out which court hears these disputes, the California rules that shape them and the official places to find current court information.

Where Trust and Probate Disputes Are Filed in San Mateo County

The Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo hears trust and estate cases arising in the county. Its probate jurisdiction covers disputes over trusts, decedents' estates and the conduct of fiduciaries (a fiduciary is a person, such as a trustee or executor, who is legally bound to act for someone else's benefit), and those disputes are decided under the California Probate Code, which applies the same way throughout the state.

The court's geographic reach is the whole county. A dispute over a trust administered in Redwood City, a house in Daly City, accounts held by a trustee in San Mateo or Burlingame, or property near Half Moon Bay or Pacifica would, as a general matter, come before the same Superior Court. The same holds for matters connected to South San Francisco, Foster City, Belmont, San Carlos, Menlo Park and East Palo Alto. Where a dispute involves people or property in more than one county, which court is proper depends on facts an attorney would look at, such as where the trust is administered or where the decedent lived.

Courthouse locations, filing rules, hearing calendars and fees change, and the court publishes them itself. The current, official source is the court's website at sanmateo.courts.ca.gov. This page does not state an address, a department, a judge or a local rule, because those details belong to the court and are best read directly from it.

Types of Trust Disputes the Court Handles

Trust contests are the disputes most readers expect. A trust contest is a lawsuit claiming that a trust, or part of it, is invalid, for example because of undue influence, lack of capacity, fraud or forgery. The deadline is set by Probate Code section 16061.8: a person served with the trustee's notification under section 16061.7(a)(1) may not bring an action to contest the trust more than 120 days from the date the notification is served, or 60 days from the date a copy of the trust's terms is delivered to that person during the 120-day period, whichever is later. The clock is triggered by service of the notification, or by delivery of the trust terms within that window, not by the death itself. Section 16061.7(a) requires the trustee to serve a notification in several events, including when a revocable trust becomes irrevocable because of a settlor's death and whenever the trustee of an irrevocable trust changes; that is a partial list. A fuller explanation of the steps appears in how to contest a trust.

Late-life gifts to certain people carry a statutory presumption. Under Probate Code section 21380, a provision making a donative transfer (a gift under a will or trust) to the person who drafted the instrument, to a person in a fiduciary relationship with the transferor who transcribed it or caused it to be transcribed, or to a care custodian of a dependent adult, if the instrument was executed while the care custodian provided services or within 90 days before or after that period, is presumed to be the product of fraud or undue influence. That presumption shifts the burden of proof and may generally be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence, but it is conclusive for a transfer to the drafter and to the people section 21380(c) associates with the drafter. A beneficiary who fails to rebut it bears all costs of the proceeding, including reasonable attorney's fees. The rule does not make every gift to a caregiver, relative or helper invalid.

No-contest clauses worry many beneficiaries. A no-contest clause is a provision that penalizes a beneficiary who challenges the document. Under Probate Code section 21311(a), it may be enforced only against a direct contest brought without probable cause and, only if the clause expressly says so, a pleading challenging a transfer on the ground that the property was not the transferor's, or a creditor's claim. Probable cause exists if, when the contest is filed, 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 (section 21311(b)). A clause of this kind does not automatically disinherit anyone who challenges a trust.

Self-dealing claims rest on Probate Code section 16004. A trustee has a duty not to use or deal with trust property for the trustee's own profit or for any purpose unconnected with the trust, and not to take part in a transaction in which the trustee has an interest adverse to the beneficiary (section 16004(a)). A transaction between trustee and beneficiary by which the trustee obtains an advantage from the beneficiary is presumed to violate the trustee's duties, a presumption affecting the burden of proof that does not apply to an agreement about the trustee's hiring or compensation (section 16004(c)).

Many of these disputes reach court through a petition under Probate Code section 17200(a), which lets a trustee or beneficiary, except as section 15800 provides, petition the court about the internal affairs of a trust or to determine whether a trust exists. The purposes section 17200(b) lists, such as construing the trust instrument, determining the validity of a provision and deciding who receives property on termination, are not exhaustive. The mechanics are set out in the guide to the Probate Code 17200 petition.

When a trustee commits or threatens a breach of trust, Probate Code section 16420(a) lets a beneficiary or cotrustee bring a proceeding for purposes including compelling the trustee to perform, enjoining a breach, compelling redress by payment of money or otherwise, appointing a receiver or temporary trustee, removing the trustee, reducing or denying compensation and, subject to section 18100, setting aside the trustee's acts, imposing an equitable lien or a constructive trust (a court order treating property as held for its rightful owner) and tracing and recovering wrongfully disposed property. Section 16420(b) preserves any other appropriate remedy.

Probate Code section 859 adds a separate recovery tool. If a court finds that a person has in bad faith wrongfully taken, concealed or disposed of property belonging to a trust or a decedent's estate (among others), or has done so by undue influence in bad faith or through elder or dependent adult financial abuse, that person is liable for twice the value of the property recovered in the action, and may, in the court's discretion, be liable for reasonable attorney's fees and costs. Neither the double recovery nor the fees follows without that finding.

Trustee Duties and the Right to Information

Silence from a trustee is often what turns family tension into litigation. Probate Code section 16060 gives the trustee a duty to keep the beneficiaries reasonably informed of the trust and its administration, and section 16061, except as section 16069 provides, requires the trustee to report requested information relevant to a beneficiary's interest on reasonable request.

An account (a formal report of what the trust held, received, spent and distributed) is owed more narrowly. Under Probate Code section 16062, except as that section and section 16064 provide, the trustee must account at least annually, at the termination of the trust and upon a change of trustee, to each beneficiary to whom income or principal is required or authorized in the trustee's discretion to be currently distributed. Not every beneficiary is owed an annual account; a beneficiary whose share waits until a future event may not be. Section 16064 excuses the account to the extent the trust instrument waives it (except that no waiver described in subdivision (e) of section 16062 is valid or enforceable), as to a beneficiary who has waived it in writing (a waiver that may be withdrawn in writing as to accounts for transactions occurring after the date of the withdrawal), and in any of the circumstances set forth in section 16069; but even where the account is waived by the instrument or by a beneficiary, the court may compel the trustee to account upon a showing that it is reasonably likely a material breach of the trust has occurred.

When a request goes unanswered, section 17200(b)(7) supplies two petitions. A petition to compel information is available if the trustee has failed to provide requested information within 60 days after the beneficiary's reasonable written request and the beneficiary has not received it within the six months preceding the request. A petition to compel an account is available if the trustee has failed to submit a requested account within 60 days after written request and no account has been made within the six months preceding the request. On any section 17200 petition, Probate Code section 17206 lets the court make any orders necessary or proper to dispose of the matters presented, including appointing a temporary trustee to administer the trust in whole or in part.

Removing a Trustee and Surcharge Claims

Probate Code section 15642(a) allows a trustee to 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 section 15642(b) lists include a 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 compensation that is excessive under the circumstances. The list is partial, and removal is a matter for the court to decide on the evidence.

Surcharge is the court's order that a trustee personally pay for a breach. Under Probate Code section 16440(a), a trustee who commits a breach is chargeable with whichever 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 estate if the lost profit resulted from the breach. Section 16440(b) lets the court, in its discretion, excuse a trustee in whole or in part who acted reasonably and in good faith under the circumstances as known to the trustee, if that would be equitable. A surcharge is never automatic, which matters as much to a trustee answering an accusation as to the beneficiary making it.

Timing can decide a breach claim. Under Probate Code section 16460(a), a claim is barred unless a proceeding is commenced within three years after the beneficiary receives an interim or final account or other written report that adequately discloses the existence of the claim, or, where no such account or report discloses it or none is received, within three years after the beneficiary discovered or reasonably should have discovered the subject of the claim. An account discloses a claim adequately if it gives enough information that the beneficiary knows of it or reasonably should have inquired.

Fees are their own source of dispute. If the trust instrument does not set the trustee's compensation, the trustee is entitled to reasonable compensation under the circumstances (Probate Code section 15681). A trustee may not charge an increased fee without first giving at least 60 days' written notice to the beneficiaries section 15686(b) lists, including each beneficiary entitled to an account under section 16062, and a section 17200 petition served before that period expires holds the increase back until the court orders otherwise or the petition is dismissed (section 15686(c)). A broader overview of these remedies appears on the California trust litigation attorney page.

Will Contests and Estate Disputes in San Mateo County

Where a will, rather than a trust, controls the property, the dispute runs through a probate estate in the San Mateo County Superior Court, and the questions families bring are often about a parent's state of mind at the end of life. Capacity is measured at the moment the will is made. Under Probate Code section 6100.5, a person lacks capacity to make a will if, at that time, the person cannot understand the nature of the testamentary act, understand and recollect the nature and situation of the person's property, or remember and understand relations to living descendants, spouse and parents and those whose interests the will affects, among other conditions the section sets out. A diagnosis such as dementia does not by itself make a will invalid; the evidence about that moment does the work.

A contest before the will is admitted begins with an objection to probate. Under Probate Code section 8250, the contestant files the objection, a summons is then issued and served with a copy of it, and the persons summoned must file a written pleading in response within 30 days after service. After admission, Probate Code section 8270 allows an interested person, other than a party to a will contest and other than a person who had actual notice of one in time to have joined it, to petition to revoke the probate of the will within 120 days after admission. A person who was a minor, or incompetent without a guardian or conservator, when the will was admitted may petition at any time before an order for final distribution.

Disputes over the executor or administrator (the personal representative) follow Probate Code section 8502, which allows removal where the personal representative has wasted, embezzled, mismanaged or committed a fraud on the estate or is about to do so; is incapable of properly executing the duties or is not qualified; has wrongfully neglected the estate or long neglected to act; where removal is otherwise necessary to protect the estate or interested persons; or for any other cause provided by statute. Property taken from an estate can be pursued in the same court, and the section 859 double-value liability described above applies to a decedent's estate on the same required finding.

Starting a Trust or Probate Dispute in San Mateo County

Petitions in these disputes are filed with the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo, and the court's own site, sanmateo.courts.ca.gov, is where current procedures and filing requirements are posted. The statewide California Courts self-help pages explain probate and trust proceedings generally, and the State Bar of California's attorney search lets anyone confirm that a California attorney is licensed.

Deciding whether to act is rarely simple when the other side is a brother, a stepparent or a lifelong family friend, and the documents usually tell more of the story than memories do: the trust and every amendment, any notification served, letters asking for information, accounts received and the dates on all of them. This page does not cover setting up a trust or routine, uncontested administration.

Discussing a Trust or Probate Dispute in San Mateo County

A dispute in San Mateo County over a trust amendment, a trustee's silence, a contested will or property that seems to have gone missing turns on details: when a notification was served, what an account disclosed, who drafted a late change and how assets moved. A conversation with an attorney would look at the trust or will and any amendments, the notices and accounts received with their dates, written requests made to the trustee and the transactions in question. Readers still deciding whether anything is actually in dispute may find the court's self-help resources a useful place to read first. To discuss a dispute like this with an attorney, request a consultation about your dispute through California Trust Litigation Lawyers.