Punitive Damages in Florida Trust & Estate Cases

Can a beneficiary of a Florida estate or a  Florida trust obtain punitive damages when involved in a probate litigation or a trust litigation lawsuit?   Heirs, family members and beneficiaries who inherit under a Florida will or a trust who are involved in litigation want damages.  In fact, in Florida, damages are often an important last element to proving your case.  In courtrooms across south Florida, like Palm Beach Gardens, Ft. Lauderdale or Delray Beach, you must demonstrate how you have been injured or wronged:  what are you damages?  Sometimes the question arises: can you get punitive damages in a Florida estate or a Florida trust case?   The judges in South Florida have a lot of trial experience.  Courts in Palm Beach County, Florida, Broward County, Florida and Dade County, Florida know that punitive damages are intended to punish a party to a lawsuit ( defendant) for harmful, outrageous conduct.  Punitive damages are intended, at least in part, to deter future wrongful conduct.   Now, putting aside the issue of whether punitive damages may be available where equitable relief is sought, can a probate court or a court hearing a Florida personal representative or a Florida trustee?  Yes.   Without going into great detail, punitive damages may be appropriate when a fiduciary such as a Florida executor, or administrator of a Florida estate, or a Florida trustee, has, for example, hidden documents, taken money improperly, ignored a court order, told a lie, engaged in acts of self-dealing or a conflict of interest.  Probate lawyers and lawyers who handle estate administrations or trust cases would say that punitive damages might be available in the probate or trust context if someone committed conversion, or fraud or civil theft, or, for example, if a trustee ignored the plain language of the trust document. Consider the surviving spouse of a Florida decedent who lives in Boca Raton and is the personal representative of the Florida estate which is being administered in the South County Courthouse in Delray Beach, FL.   The surviving spouse is also the trustee of his or her late spouse’s revocable or living trust, who is to administer the trust for him or her self and children of a prior relationship.  If that personal representative or trustee hid assets, for example and took assets which belonged in the trust or the estate, a court might punish the Florida trustee or Florida executor for such conduct.  As with any trial or any probate or trust case or lawsuit, it really depends on the facts and how you apply Florida law to those facts.  For a two part article on punitive damages in Florida, email michelle@pankauskilawfirm.com.  Advocate hard.  Litigate smart.