Ranting and Raving Does Not Help on Appeal.
Although we cannot say that it was definitive, appellant’s ranting and raving below and on appeal certainly did not help him overturn a probate court’s award of fees against his trust account. It didn’t come close.
In McBride v. Hall, Case No. H035399 (6th Dist. July 12, 2011) (unpublished), trust beneficiary represented himself in protracted litigation over the appointment of a trustee to succeed respondent trustee, with beneficiary being unsuccessful in getting himself appointed. The probate court basically directed payment of certain costs and fees from beneficiary’s trust account for lower court proceedings and defense of certain orders on appeal by the appointed trustee. Respondent won the fee battles, and appellant beneficiary appealed.
The problem here was that the lower court record was riddled with “rants and raves” by appellant. On appeal, using words like “mauled” and “ensnared”–although maybe good verbiage to use on a Safari or a truly brutal law-and-motion proceeding–did not resonate well with the appellate court.
The probate court has discretion to charge a trust with legal expenses incurred in defense of trust administration tasks, with the attorneys aiding a trustee in this arena being entitled to fees in the court’s discretion. (Uzyel v. Kadisha, 188 Cal.App.4th 866, 911 (2010); Kasperbauer v. Fairfield, 171 Cal.App.4th 229, 235 (2009); Donahue v. Donahue, 182 Cal.App.4th 259, 268 (2010).) No abuse of discretion here with respect to charging fees against appellant’s account.