What court should hear a dispute over a California trust? I briefed this question last month when a judge questioned if a case should instead be adjudicated in neighboring states. Such jurisdiction issues come up occasionally given the mobility of family members with interests in trusts.
A recent appellate case, Van Buskirk v. Van Buskirk (2020) 53 Cal.App.5th 523, shows the “long arm” reach of California courts in trust litigation. California courts may leap, catch and decide disputes even when nonresident parties would prefer to litigate elsewhere.
Conflict in the Van Buskirk FamilyWalter Van Buskirk, Jr., and Ellen Van Buskirk lived in Santa Monica and had three children. They signed a revocable living trust in which they designated California as the governing law.
After Walter died in 2005, Ellen became the sole trustee.
According to son Walter Van Buskirk III, he was the only child to work in the family real estate business and he spent more time caring for Ellen than his two sisters. He alleged that in September 2016 his sisters conspired to move Ellen from a rehabilitation facility to Idaho, where they lived. When Walter III tried to see Ellen there, the daughters blocked his visits. Walter alleged that that Ellen sold some of the Trust’s California real estate at “fire sale prices.”
Ellen and her daughters painted a different picture. They claimed that Walter III was a never-do-well who lived on the family’s wealth. They asserted that Ellen left California of her own free will to escape Walter III and that she could make independent financial decisions, including to disinherit her son.
After moving to Idaho, Ellen filed four lawsuits in California, including an action to evict Walter III from the former family home in Santa Monica.
Walter III was unhappy with his Ellen’s actions and filed his own suit in the probate department of Los Angeles County Superior Court, claiming that her recent real estate transactions breached her duties as trustee. He contended that his sisters and his uncle (a Nevada resident) had participated in the wrongful transactions. He requested an accounting and the removal of Ellen as trustee.
Ellen Asserts Lack of Personal JurisdictionA court generally must have “personal jurisdiction” over parties to adjudicate claims against them. In California, personal jurisdiction stretches to the limits set by federal due process law. Probate Code section 17004, by reference to the Code of Civil Procedure, confirms the broad...
