Litigious Beneficiary? Strike the Sham Pleadings Now to Save the Headaches of Trial in West Palm Beach

Are you a West Palm Beach trustee for a group of  litigious beneficiaries? You are probably getting sick of defending law suit after lawsuit in West Palm Beach probate court for breach of trust, surcharge, breach of fiduciary duty and more. Are you sick of having to wait for a motion for summary judgment or worse a full on trial? Have you considered striking the pleadings as a “sham?” You may be able to get the case out before you even have to answer to it, check out how in a recent case out of the Fourth District Court of Appeals.

Sham Pleadings

• Overall the Court does not like to entertain sham pleadings.
• On the other hand the Court does not want to strike pleadings just because they seem out of the ordinary.
• You may have grounds to strike the complaint for it being a sham pleading.
• You will have to establish on the record that the pleadings are sham and that the plaintiff is not entitled to relief.
• If you are the trustee of a discretionary trust this might be pretty easy to do after all you have complete discretion.
• Also sometimes there will be facts that are clearly just not true that you can refute by including affidavits in your complaint.
• West Palm Beach courts are prepared to strike pleadings that are made in bad faith, that do not entitle a party to relief or claims that are brought in bad faith to unduly harass another party.
• If you are dealing with a crazy and malicious trustee this may be the motion you need to get out of court quickly.
• Check out this case out of the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

Bornstein v. Marcus, Marcus P.A. and Granada LLC

• The sole issue on appeal for the Court here was whether or not the trial court erred in striking the appellant’s pleadings as sham.
• The trial court had found that the complaint was a sham because of the rules governing limited liability companies.
• The court reversed and remanded because of a recent case out of the Supreme Court that said the ruling is contrary to the law.
• Do you know what the economic loss rule is?
• That saved the day for this plaintiff as there pleadings were sent back to trial court.
• Experienced Palm Beach probate litigators know that its not always easy to dismiss on sham pleadings even when the case can’t hold water.

Want to learn more?

Check out the entire case by clicking here.