TRUST AND ESTATE LITIGATION

Defending a corporate trustee against claims it breached its fiduciary duty

Our attorneys represented an institutional trust company that served for a number of years as co-trustee with the widow of the grantor of the trust. The trust portfolio was heavily concentrated in the stock of the company at which the grantor had been employed. Upon the widow's death, the trust was to terminate and the assets were to be distributed to the grantor's children.

During the last years of the widow's life, the company's stock value decreased dramatically. After the widow's death, the children sued the corporate trustee for breach of fiduciary duty in failing to diversify the trust account. They sought more than $3 million in actual and punitive damages.

Following a week-long trial in the Circuit Court for the City of St. Louis, the Court rendered a judgment finding that our client had not breached its fiduciary duty. We successfully defended the trial court's judgment in the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District, which affirmed the judgment of the trial court in its entirety.

Action to set aside a trust or will

We represented the successor trustee of his father's revocable trust. The only asset in the trust was the father's home. An earlier version of the father's trust provided that the home would be distributed upon his death to his daughter. The father later amended his trust to provide that the home would be divided equally between his son and daughter.

After the father died, the daughter sued our client, both individually and in his capacity as successor trustee, asking the Court set aside the later trust amendment, alleging that her father lacked the necessary mental capacity to amend his trust, or that her father amended the trust as a result of undue influence exerted by her brother.

After an unsuccessful attempt to reach an amicable resolution of the dispute, we tried the case in St. Louis County Circuit Court, obtaining a judgment in favor of our client. The court upheld the validity of the trust amendments, ordered the sister to deliver possession of the property to our client as trustee, and required her to pay rent to the trust for the period during which she occupied the property without permission.

Enforcement of contract to make a will

Our client in this case was divorced in 1972. As part of the divorce agreement, her ex-husband agreed to make a will leaving his entire estate at his death to the couple's four children. Many years later, when the ex-husband died, it was revealed that he had reneged on this obligation and had instead drafted a "pour-over" will and revocable trust that left his entire estate to the children of his second wife.

We brought suit in the Circuit Court for the City of St. Louis to enforce the ex-husband's contractual obligation to make a will in favor of our client's children. The trial court ruled in favor of our client, and ordered that the trust be reformed to provide that all assets be distributed to the children of our client. We successfully defended the trial court's judgment in the Missouri Court of Appeals, which affirmed the judgment in all respects.

Saving the family farm from being sold to pay estate expenses

We were retained to represent our client following the entry of an Order by the Probate Court for Carter County, Missouri, authorizing the sale of approximately 700 acres of real estate located in Southeast Missouri. Our client was the ex-husband of the decedent, who died without a will leaving two minor children as her only heirs. Following her death, the children's father was appointed their guardian and conservator, and was acting on their behalf in the probate proceedings.

The real estate in question had been in the family for nearly 100 years, and its value far exceeded any claims or debts of the estate. Nevertheless, the probate court had ordered the property sold at the request of the personal representative, who argued that it was impractical for the minor heirs to manage or operate the property.

When we were retained, the property was scheduled for a public auction within ten days. We filed an appeal of the Probate Court's order and successfully obtained a stay of the sale pending resolution of the appeal. Thereafter, we successfully negotiated a resolution that allowed a limited amount of the acreage to be sold to pay legitimate debts and claims of the estate, but preserved the rest of the real estate for the minor children.