Frye v. Collins, Case No. A143623 (1st Dist., Div. 2 Aug. 9, 2017) (unpublished)
In this one, a trustee lost certain trust challenges by other relatives, also saddled with a costs/fees award of $440,000. This award was affirmed because the lower court decided that it should be paid out of the entire trust res, so that the successful parties had to bear some of the fees because of a common fund wrinkle in the case making it fair to spread the fee award over the res rather than simply paid out of losing trustee’s res share.
Leino v. Balkcom, Case No. C080950 (3d Dist. Aug. 9, 2017) (unpublished).
The second decision was a situation where a trial judge granted CCP § 128.7 sanctions against a trustee and attorney, who challenged on many, many grounds. None held up on appeal. The interesting aspect of this opinion is the appellate court’s conclusion that trustee’s failure to remove a lis pendens after the probate action was dismissed for over a year justified imposition of sanctions. The sanctioned parties argued that the recording of a lis pendens did not justify imposition of sanctions, but the appellate court disagreed based on the fact that a lis pendens needs to be procedurally filed with the court so to trigger section 128.7.