Florida Probate Blog

Resulting trusts are a fiction of the law that arises where property is transferred or acquired by one under facts and circumstances which indicate that the beneficial interest is not intended to be enjoyed by the holder of legal title. A case some readers may have read about in recent newspaper headlines involved a legal theory based on a resulting trust remedy. In City of Boston v. Roxbury Action Program, Inc., 68 Mass. 1101, 865 N.E2d 1140 (2007) the city of Boston became aware that a landowner, which was obligated to convey land to the city due to an inability to obtain a government commitment for housing development on property. The City went to Court claiming that the landowner was holding the property for the City under a resulting trust, since it wasn’t, in the city’s view, the parties’ intention for the landowner to hold the beneficial interest in the […]

Deadbeat Dad Can’t Use Last Mom’s Last Minute Will Change to Escape Payment to Ex-Wife: CALIFORNIA COURT USES CONSTRUCTIVE TRUST THEORY TO DEFEAT LAST MINUTE WILL CHANGE BY MOTHER INTENDED TO HELP SON AVOID CHILD SUPPORT LIEN ON HIS INHERITANCE. In an interesting opinion that could have implications in Florida, a California Appellate Court recently used the legal remedy of a constructive trust to allow a testator’s ex-wife to sue her ex-husband and his sister after they allegedly coerced their mother into changing her will just prior to her death, to give to her daughter the share of the estate given to her son in a prior will so that he could avoid child support obligations. In Cabral v. Soares, 69 Cal.Rptr.3d 242 (Ct.App.2007) Tammy Cabral, the Plaintiff, filed a Complaint alleging that as of November 2005 her ex husband James was delinquent in paying court-ordered spousal and child support […]