Miami Third DCA Appeal: Trustee Wins When Other Party Fails to Preserve Issue on Appeal

Uncategorized • Aug 4, 2015

Are you suing a trustee for an improper distribution from a discretionary trust in West Palm Beach? Like any appeal in West Palm Beach you better preserve the issue for appeal. Do you know how to preserve the issue? Do not risk waiving it in West Palm Beach, an experienced Palm Beach litigation attorney keeps the issues safe for review. Want to know what not to do?Check out this appeal from the Third District Court of Appeal in and for Miami Dade County.

Trustee Distributions

There are a lot of types of trusts, which means a lot of different types of distributions.
It is not uncommon for one beneficiary or other interested party to feel that a distribution is improper, and disagreement is also common.
Be prepared to go court and have a trial judge disagree with you, remember though in West Palm Beach you can appeal the probate court decision.
That being said, without proper records you cannot ask the appeals court to look over anything!

Preserving the Issue on Appeal

It may be your responsibility to pay for a court reporter, and lets be honest they can be expensive.
Do you get your costs reimbursed if you win?
You may want to consider filing a motion for costs and fees within thirty days of a final decision in West Palm Beach.
Either way you may want to spring for the court reporter, do you know why?
Without the reporter you have no record.
An appeals court cannot do a lot with an order that is one page and says the judge heard evidence and made a decision.
In fact the court is going to see that, and see nothing wrong with it!
That spells lose on appeal.
Look what happened to this couple out of West Palm Beach and ask yourself was it worth it to save five hundred bucks on the court reporter?

Giller & Giller v. Giller and Grossman

A brother and sister were suing the trustee of their father’s trust for what they felt was an improper distribution.
The trial court found that the trustee was within their right to make such a decision and that court approval was not necessary.
On appeal the brother and sister lost again but not on the merits, the court noted there was no record to review in order to disturb the trial court.
Why pay the money for the appeal if you were too cheap to preserve the issue in the first place?

Want to learn more about preserving the issues on appeal in West Palm Beach?

Check out the entire case by clicking here.