Trust and probate litigation · California
California Trust and Probate Litigation: Your Rights
California trust and probate litigation is the court process for resolving disputes over a trust, a will or a decedent's estate. It lets beneficiaries, heirs and fiduciaries challenge a document's validity, demand information and accountings, remove a trustee or executor, and recover property taken wrongfully, within strict deadlines.
Most people facing a dispute like this arrive after something has already gone wrong. A parent has died, a late amendment turned up, a sibling acting as trustee has stopped answering questions, or a house that was supposed to be shared is being sold. Sometimes the reader is the trustee or executor, now accused of misconduct and trying to understand what the other side can actually ask a judge to do. What both sides usually want first is a clear map: what rights exist, who can enforce them, and how much time the law allows.
What California Trust and Probate Litigation Covers
The foundation for trust disputes is Probate Code section 17200. Under subdivision (a), "except as provided in Section 15800, a trustee or beneficiary of a trust may petition the court under this chapter concerning the internal affairs of the trust or to determine the existence of the trust." Subdivision (b) then lists types of proceedings, such as construing the trust instrument, settling accounts, instructing the trustee and compelling the trustee to act. That list "include[s], but [is] not limited to" those purposes, so it is not exhaustive.
Contesting a Trust in California
A trust contest is a court challenge to the validity of a trust or one of its amendments. The grounds raised most often are lack of capacity, undue influence, fraud and mistake. Undue influence has a specific statutory meaning in California, and whether it occurred depends heavily on the facts surrounding how the document was signed.
The deadline starts with a notice. Probate Code section 16061.7(a) requires the trustee to serve a "notification by the trustee" 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. The settlor is the person who created the trust. That list of events is partial.
Once served, the clock is set by Probate Code section 16061.8. A person served with the notification after a settlor's death cannot 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 period does not run from the date of death or from the date the trust became irrevocable. It runs from service of the notice, or from delivery of the trust terms within that window.
Trustee Duties, Breaches, and Court Remedies
The duty of loyalty is the center of trustee misconduct cases. Under Probate Code section 16004(a), "the trustee has a duty not to use or deal with trust property for the trustee's own profit or for any other purpose unconnected with the trust, nor to take part in any transaction in which the trustee has an interest adverse to the beneficiary." Using trust money for personal expenses, or buying a trust house at a discount, are the kinds of conduct this duty addresses. A related page explains when a trustee selling trust property is acting within that authority.
Section 16004(c) adds a presumption. A transaction between the trustee and a beneficiary, during the trust or while the trustee's influence remains, by which the trustee gains an advantage from the beneficiary is presumed to violate the trustee's fiduciary duties. This presumption affects the burden of proof. It does not apply to an agreement about the trustee's hiring or compensation.
When a trustee commits or threatens a breach, Probate Code section 16420(a) lets a beneficiary or cotrustee seek any appropriate remedy from this list: compel the trustee to perform its duties; enjoin the breach; compel redress by payment of money or otherwise; appoint a receiver or temporary trustee; remove the trustee; subject to section 18100, set aside the trustee's acts; reduce or deny the trustee's compensation; subject to section 18100, impose an equitable lien or a constructive trust (a court order treating specific property as held for its rightful owner); and, subject to section 18100, trace and recover wrongfully disposed property. Those remedies do not prevent resort to any other appropriate remedy.
Surcharge is the money liability a court may impose. Under Probate Code section 16440(a), a trustee who breaches the trust is chargeable, as appropriate, with the loss or depreciation in value caused by the breach, with interest; any profit the trustee made through the breach, with interest; or any profit the trust would have earned but for the breach. Surcharge is not automatic. Under section 16440(b), the court may excuse a trustee in whole or in part who acted reasonably and in good faith under the circumstances as the trustee knew them, if that would be equitable.
Petitioning the Court: How Trust Disputes Reach a Judge
A petition is the document that brings a trust dispute before the Superior Court of California for the relevant county. Section 17200, described above, is the usual vehicle, and because its list of proceedings is not exhaustive, a petition can address almost any question about the trust's internal affairs.
Two petitions arise often when information stops flowing. A beneficiary may petition to compel the trustee to provide requested information when the trustee has not provided it within 60 days after the beneficiary's reasonable written request and the beneficiary has not received it within the six months before the request. A beneficiary may petition to compel an account when the trustee has not submitted a requested account within 60 days after written request and no account has been made within the six months before the request. Both appear among the section 17200 proceedings. When a trustee is refusing trust documents, these petitions are usually where the dispute starts.
Removing a Trustee or Personal Representative
A trustee and a personal representative are different fiduciaries governed by different removal statutes. The trustee manages trust property. The personal representative, called an executor when named in a will, manages a probate estate under court supervision.
For trustees, Probate Code section 15642(a) allows removal 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; hostility or lack of cooperation among cotrustees that impairs administration; failing or declining to act; and excessive compensation. That list is partial.
For personal representatives, Probate Code section 8502 allows removal when the personal representative has wasted, embezzled, mismanaged or committed a fraud on the estate, or is about to; is incapable of properly performing the duties or is otherwise not qualified; has wrongfully neglected the estate or long neglected to act; when removal is otherwise necessary to protect the estate or interested persons; or for any other cause provided by statute.
Recovering Property Wrongfully Taken from a Trust or Estate
Property disputes often involve a house, a bank account or a business that someone took control of before or after a death. Where trust real estate is at issue, a separate page on trust real estate disputes covers ownership questions in more detail.
Probate Code section 859 provides an enhanced remedy. 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 taken, concealed or disposed of it by undue influence in bad faith or through elder or dependent adult financial abuse, the person is liable for twice the value of the property recovered by an action under that part. The court may also, in its discretion, hold that person liable for reasonable attorney's fees and costs.
Neither result is automatic. The double-value liability depends on one of those specific findings, and fees are discretionary. Section 859 adds to other remedies, so for trust property a beneficiary may also seek the section 16420 remedies, such as a constructive trust or tracing.