Most trust disputes begin when the trustee stops communicating. The statements stop arriving, or the figures in them no longer match what the trust is supposed to hold. Others begin with the document itself, often an amendment signed late in a parent’s life while he depended on the person who later became trustee.
Texas law gives beneficiaries several ways to bring a trustee before a judge, and in Nueces County more than one court can hear the case. This office handles the following trust disputes.
A trust case in Nueces County is heard by a county court at law or a district court. The county has no statutory probate court, so no judge here hears only probate, guardianship and trust matters. The county court at law judges hear many other civil matters as well.
Because the judge will not have lived with your family’s file, the case has to arrive organized. That means the trust instrument and amendments, the statements you have received, and a specific order you are asking the court to make.
Property Code §115.001(a) gives district courts original and exclusive jurisdiction over proceedings by or against a trustee and proceedings concerning trusts. Section 115.001(d) makes an exception for jurisdiction conferred by law on a county court at law.
Government Code §25.1802(a)(6) is that grant for Nueces County. It gives the county courts at law concurrent jurisdiction with the district court in all actions involving an inter vivos trust, a charitable trust or a testamentary trust, and in all actions by or against a personal representative. A living trust that was never part of a probate case is covered, so you do not need an open estate to sue a trustee in a county court at law.
The choice between the two courts is made at filing and depends on what else is in the case, whether an estate is already open, and who the defendants are. Jury size is one practical difference. A county court at law jury has six members unless other law requires twelve (Gov’t Code §25.1802(o)). A district court jury has twelve unless the parties agree to fewer (Gov’t Code §62.201).
Most trust cases are decided on the trust’s own records, and a trustee with something to hide tends to produce them late, in pieces, or not at all. Property Code §113.151(a) lets a beneficiary make a written demand for a statement of accounts covering all transactions since the last accounting or since the trust was created.
If the trustee does not deliver the statement within 90 days, the beneficiary may sue to compel it, and the court may award costs and attorney’s fees against the trustee if the beneficiary prevails. Once the accounting is produced, transfers can be traced against the trust’s assets and the court has something concrete to rule on. An executor or administrator who refuses to account is a separate problem with its own remedies, covered on the breach of fiduciary duty page.
Some disputes involve an honest trustee and a document that no longer works. The terms conflict, or circumstances the settlor did not anticipate have made a provision impossible to carry out. On petition of a trustee or beneficiary, Property Code §112.054(a) allows a court to change the trustee, modify the terms, or terminate the trust in whole or in part when one of the statutory conditions is met, such as the trust’s purposes having become impossible to fulfill or circumstances the settlor did not know of or anticipate. Section 112.054(b-1) separately allows reformation in limited cases, including correcting a scrivener’s error.
These are contested proceedings brought against everyone who will be bound by the result, and this office litigates them.
Kreig LLC handles contested matters: trust litigation, will contests, removal of an executor or administrator, breach of fiduciary duty, contested heirship proceedings and large estates. The full list is on the practice page. The Corpus Christi office is at 710 Buffalo St., Suite 802, by appointment, and the firm takes matters in Nueces, San Patricio, Kleberg, Aransas and Jim Wells counties.
Bring the trust instrument, any amendment you have seen, and the most recent statement the trustee sent you. We will tell you which Nueces County court the claim belongs in and what the first step should be.
The first consultation is short and free.