Venue, Will Contests, and West Palm Beach Trust Lawsuits
Has your Florida trust attorney advised that you transfer your West Palm Beach trust lawsuit to a different venue? Has a beneficiary of an estate filed a motion to transfer venue? Are you confused about the Florida laws pertaining to venue, and how they can affect your Florida probate matter? When should a transfer of venue be considered? What is required for a Florida court to grant a motion to transfer venue? Can you move to transfer a will contest in Broward County to a more conveniently located venue? If you are involved in Florida litigation regarding a venue transfer, you may want to read an April 10, 2019 Fourth DCA opinion, Cohen v. Scarnato.
Venue and Florida Probate Litigation
Florida attorneys know that venue is a legal term for where you can file a lawsuit. In other words, a venue is where actions or a lawsuit can be brought. Florida is the jurisdiction or “forum”, but venue refers to the county in which your probate lawsuit or trust dispute may be heard. For example, some cases can be brought in Miami- Dade County, while others can be brought in Orange County.
Proper Venue
Florida Statute 47.011 provides that “actions shall be brought only in the county where the defendant resides, where the cause of action accrued, or where the property in litigation is located.” Therefore, in a trust or probate lawsuit, multiple factors will be considered to determine proper venue. Courts may consider where the trustee or personal representative resides, where the trustee’s principal place of business is, where the Florida trust or estate is being administered, etc.
Transferring Venue in Florida
You may wonder what you can do if you wish to move a probate case to a more convenient venue for you. When a case is filed in a county or venue, but one of the parties wishes to move it to a different venue, a motion to transfer the case will probably be filed. In certain circumstances, a transfer may be granted by the court.
Florida Statute 47.122 states that “ for the convenience of the parties or witnesses or in the interest of justice, any court of record may transfer any civil action to another court of record in which it might have been brought.”
Cohen v. Scarnato
A recent Fourth DCA opinion, Cohen v. Scarnato, discusses venue and when a case can be transferred in Florida. Here, a beneficiary of a Florida trust moved to transfer trust disputes between himself, original trustee, and successor co-trustees from Broward County to Flagler County. The Circuit Court granted this motion but the successor co-trustees appealed.
The appellate court states that “the party seeking transfer must submit affidavits or evidence to show that a change of venue is necessary for the convenience of the parties or witnesses or in the interest of justice.” Furthermore, even after evidence is shown to prove the change necessary, a court may transfer venue only to a court where the action could have initially been filed.
Here, the Broward trial court erred in transferring the trust disputes to Flagler County because 1) there was insufficient evidence to show that a change of venue was necessary and 2) the trial court failed to consider whether Flagler County was a proper venue.
The beneficiary who moved for the transfer argued that the trust disputes couldn’t be resolved until a will contest case in Flagler County was resolved and, therefore, the trust disputes should be transferred to Flagler County. However, the appellate court explains that a transfer of the trust disputes was not necessary because “ any potential injustice can be avoided by abating the trust case until the will contest is resolved.”
Furthermore, the trial court transferred the trust disputes from Broward County to Flagler County without even considering whether the disputes could have been filed in Flagler County initially. As discussed earlier, Florida Statute 47.122 states that “for the convenience of the parties or witnesses or in the interest of justice, any court of record may transfer any civil action to another court of record in which it might have been brought.”
For the reasons above, the Fourth DCA reversed and remanded.
Are you in need of a trust lawyer or probate attorney in Florida? If you would like to interview an experienced probate lawyer at Pankauski Hauser, free of charge, call (561)514-0900 ext. 101.