Florida Trust Litigation: Did you sue the Florida trustee personally? (July 2014 Case: getting the Florida trustee to pay attorneys fees personally)

If you are involved in trust litigation in Florida, then you want to be reminded of the July 23, 2014 trust appealopinion in the case of Grasso v. Grasso.  Can you get the trustee to pay Florida trust litigation attorneys fees personally?  Well, this Florida trust case suggests that you need to consider how you sued the trustee.

Suing a Florida Trustee: basics of Florida trust law and litigation

• In Florida trusts, a trustee is permitted to hire advisors and experts, like trust lawyers, and to have them paid for from the trust assets
• That means that trustees don’t dip into their own pockets to pay their trust lawyers Palm Beach Gardens
• There are statutes, or trust laws, in the Florida Trust Code on this; and it’s common fortrust lawyers Palm Beach to write a provision in a Florida revocable trust agreement that says the same thing
• Otherwise, what trustee would want to serve if they have to use their own money to run the trust, right?

Florida Trust Litigation: When Florida Trustees Have To Pay with Their Own Money

• Unless, of course, a probate court in Florida SURCHARGES the trustee or orders that the trustee pay attorneys fees personally
• In those cases, a Florida trustee may have to use his or her own personal funds — NOT trust funds — to pay attorneys fees from trust litigation, to reimburse the trust some money, or pay any surcharge
• A recent, July, 2014, Florida revocable trust case points out the importance of how you sue a Florida trustee
• If you are seeking attorneys fees against the Florida trustee personally, you need to sue that trustee in their individual capacity
• Put another way: if you are involved in trust litigation Boca Raton, and if you are suing a trustee, it’s common to sue a trustee in their representative or fiduciary capacity—as trustee
• But you also need to know when to sue that Palm Beach County Trustee individually orpersonally
• It’s important to understand that a trustee can be sued as a trustee, or, for purported wrongs which they may be personally responsible, a Florida trustee can be sued in theirindividual or personal capacity. If you only sue a trustee as a trustee, in their fiduciary capacity as the trustee, that means that the individual trustee is not before the court.  And if someone is not before the Florida Trust Court, then you generally can’t get relief from them in a trust lawsuit Palm Beach.
• Remember: everyone is using a revocable trust or a living trust which becomes ir-revocable upon someone’s death

Here is the revocable living trust legal opinion from Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal, which you can read for free at this link:http://www.2dca.org/opinions/Opinion_Pages/Opinion_Pages_2014/July/July%2023,%202014/2D13-5186.pdf