Matter of the Frank and Ruth Loper Trust

Case Number

Case Type Trust Hearing Date / Time Wed, 05/06/2026 - 09:30 Nature of Proceedings Petition to Determine Claim to Real Property Tentative Ruling Probate Notes: Appearances required. The following is noted for the Court at the hearing:

In 1965, Frank and Ruth Loper took title to 1264 N. Refugio Road, as husband and wife as joint tenants. In 1998, Frank and Ruth Loper took title to an addition parcel of real property as husband and wife as community property. The properties are unrelated, and do not appear to be situated close to each other. Frank and Ruth Loper thereafter executed the subject trust in 2000.

According to the language of the trust, the Refugio Road property was expressly stated to be held as property of that trust, evinced by listing the Refugio Road property at Schedule A of the 2000 trust instrument, but a deed transferring title to the Refugio Road property to the trust was not recorded during the life of Frank. Petitioner alleges that Frank died in 2000, and Ruth amended the Trust four times before her death in 2025. In 2023, Ruth finally recorded an Affidavit of Death of Joint Owner and a Trust Transfer Deed purportion to place the recorded title of the Refugio Road Property into the trust. The legal description of the Refugio Road property in the 1965 deed was mistakenly switched with the legal description of the property contained in the 1998 deed to the other property owned by Frank and Ruth.

Petitioner is the successor trustee of the subject trust. The amendments to the trust are not relevant for the purposes of this case, because they do not alter provisions applicable to the relief requested by Petitioner. However, it is alleged in the petition that a cloud exists on title to the Refugio Road property, because the legal description in Ruth's 2023 Trust Transfer Deed did not contain the correct legal description of the Refugio Property.

Since the legal description in the 2023 recorded Trust Transfer Deed is what created the cloud on title, and since there is no person other than Ruth and her heirs/beneficiaries that are able to make a claim against the trust for title of the Refugio Road property, this matter is not the proper circumstance to warrant a petition under section 850 of the Probate Code. (Dudek v. Dudek (2019) 34 Cal.App.5th 154, 170-171 [Section 850 "provides the probate court with a mechanism to determine rights in property belonging to a decedent or to someone else."]; Parker v.

Schwarcz (2022) 84 Cal.App.5th 418, 429 ["Recent cases have observed that " '[t]he statutory scheme's purpose is to effect a conveyance or transfer of property belonging to a decedent or a trust or another person under specified circumstances, to grant any appropriate relief to carry out the decedent's [or settlor's] intent, and to prevent looting of ... estates. [Citations.] It provides the probate court with a mechanism to determine rights in property belonging to a decedent or to someone else.' "].)