Palm Beach Trust Litigation: A Trustee’s Best Friends– 8 Affirmative Defenses to Protect a Trustee in a Beneficiary Lawsuit

Let’s say that you are a Florida trustee under a trust and that a beneficiary has sued you.   Before the trust lawsuit seems like a long walk off a short pier, calm down and think again.  Wait.   Evaluate.  Consider.   Here are 8 defenses which Palm Beach trust law firms use to defend you, or, rather, may use to defend you and protect you, the Florida trustee.

So, Your Trust Beneficiary Sued You…. Now What ?: Protecting the Florida Trustee In a Beneficiary Lawsuit

• Maybe you are a brother or sister living in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and you were appointed successor trustee of your dad’s revocable trust
• Now you are in charge and administering the Florida trust which, since dad has now passed, is irrevocable
• The living trust is now a family trust for family members
• A beneficiary of the trust has sued you: say, your cousin or sister or brother or niece or nephew, who is a beneficiary of this Florida Family Trust, who lives in Delray Beach, Florida
• Now you are in a Palm Beach County trust lawsuit and outraged.
• What to do?
• Question:  How can you, the Palm Beach Trustee, protect yourself?

Defending the Palm Beach Trustee from a Trust Lawsuit

• Your trust litigation law firm in Palm Beach County will know what to do
• Consider these affirmative defenses which can help all trustees
• Note: you can only use these trustee defenses when they are available and supported by the facts and the law
• But here’s a laundry list of these affirmative defenses for a Florida trustee that should not be forgotten
• The list below is NOT exclusive or exhaustive, merely a set of 8 trustee defenses which may or may not apply, but which should at least be considered by your trust litigator.  He or she may have more affirmative defenses for you or may determine that some trustee defenses don’t apply.
• I am listing merely some affirmative defenses unique to the Florida Trust Code and Florida Trust Litigation, not necessarily the “common” or “regular” affirmative defenses which Florida law provides.

Defending a Florida Trustee from a Palm Beach Trust Lawsuit

1. Statute of limitations–  4 years or 6 months?   See 736.1008 of the Florida Trust Code.  You can read it all online for free.  Just google “Florida Statutes” and then click, and scroll to Chapter 736.
2. Did you, the Palm Beach County Trustee reasonably rely on the trust document?   736.1009
3. Exculpation language in trust document?  Did the creator of the revocable trust create  a different standard by which you, the trustee is judged, other than mere negligence?   Does the Florida trust instrument or deed of trust have language which lets you off the hook?  See 736.1011
4. Did the beneficiary consent in the past to what is complained of now?
5. Did the beneficiary release you in the past?
6. Did the beneficiary of the trust ratify what you did and what he or she now is suing you over? See 736. 1012.
7. Was an improper distribution made to a beneficiary which simply needs to be just returned?  See 736.1018.
8. Finally, if the Palm Beach trustee delegated investment authority or investment functions to an agent, and the beneficiary is suing over trust investments, you may be off the hook.  See 518.11 and 518.112.