In In re Pitts, the parties in a case settled and had a special needs trust drafted. No. 05-22-00542-CV, 2022 Tex. App. LEXIS 4143 (Tex. App.—Dallas June 16, 2022, original proceeding). The trial court entered a different trust. The parties filed a petition for writ of mandamus challenging the trust entered by the trial court. The court of appeals denied the mandamus because the parties never requested that the trial court enter the trust that they drafted:
Continue Reading Court Refused Mandamus Relief Due To Party’s Failure To Ask Trial Court To Issue New Special Needs Trust

In Moore v. Estate of Moore, a decedent’s wife claimed that she had an interest in an oil and gas lease formerly owned by her deceased husband. No. 07-20-00019-CV, 2021 Tex. App. LEXIS 6142 (Tex. App.—Amarillo July 30, 2021, no pet. history). The decedent’s children were the trustees of a trust that was the residuary beneficiary of the decedent’s will. If the decedent still owned the mineral interests at the time of his death, the trust would inherit that interest. After the decedent died, the wife and the trustees settled their dispute and entered into a settlement agreement that provided: “The Parties agree that each shall keep and own such real and personal property as they currently possess without any challenge of any other party.” Id. Later, the trustees sued the wife, alleging she breached her contractual duty to transfer the mineral interest to the trust, was liable under a theory of money had and received, and breached her fiduciary duties. After a jury trial, the trial court entered a judgment for the trustees, and held that the mineral interest belonged to the trust. The wife appealed.
Continue Reading Court Holds That Trust Owned Mineral Interests And Not The Settlor’s Wife

In Maxey v. Maxey, in a dispute that arose from the probate of an estate, two sisters mediated and reached a settlement agreement concerning the division of certain real property. No. 01-19-00078-CV, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 10281 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] December 29, 2020, no pet. history). The two sisters disagreed on how they would divide property among certain trusts, and they sued one another. After mediation, they entered into a settlement agreement that purported to divide the real property. Then the parties disagreed on what the settlement agreement meant, and once again sued each other regarding breach of the agreement. The trial court found the settlement agreement was ambiguous and submitted the meaning of the agreement to a jury. After the jury trial, the court entered judgment on the verdict, and the losing sister appealed.
Continue Reading Court Reversed Jury Trial And Determined That Settlement Agreement Dividing Real Property Owned By Trusts Was Not Ambiguous

In Neal v. Neal, the court of appeals affirmed a trial court’s judgment resolving who were the correct beneficiaries of a trust. No. 05-19-00364-CV, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 4514 (Tex. App.—Dallas June 17, 2020, no pet. history). The trial court’s judgment declaring the decedent’s sister’s children the remainder beneficiaries of his trust was in

In In re Estate of Spiller, a party appealed an order admitting a will to probate and ordering the independent administrator to distribute the estate in accordance with a family settlement agreement. No. 04-15-00449-CV, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 6811 (Tex. App.—San Antonio June 29, 2016, no pet. history). Earlier in the case, there was