Estate of Harshine CA3

Filed 9/12/25 Estate of Harshine CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Siskiyou) ----

Estate of JIMMIE HARSHINE, Deceased. C098713

LINDA LOPEZ et al., (Super. Ct. Nos. SCSC-CVPB-2015-1308, Petitioners and Respondents, SCSC-CVPB-2015-1535)

v.

JOYCE TRUTTMAN,

Objector and Appellant.

The trial court removed appellant Joyce Truttman as administrator of an estate at the request of respondents Linda Lopez and Patricia Peterson. On appeal, appellant contends the trial court erred because respondents did not have standing to petition for her removal and the trial court’s removal hearing was inadequate. We affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Jimmie Harshine died in October 2015 leaving in his estate “a large residential parcel in a rural area of Siskiyou County.” Lopez was appointed special administrator of

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the estate in December 2015 and appellant was appointed administrator in 2017. Appellant filed a motion to surcharge Lopez and in August 2018, the trial court held a contested hearing with testimony and evidence on Lopez’s management of the estate. The trial court ultimately ruled Lopez “acted reasonably and in good faith, using ordinary care and diligence,” finding “equity require[d] that [Lopez] be therefore excused in whole from liability for damages to the estate.” The court awarded Lopez, pursuant to Probate Code1 section 8547, her “compensation and costs as special administrator” and “her attorneys fees and costs incurred,” and exonerated Lopez’s bond. Appellant appealed the order and we affirmed. (Estate of Harshine (May 26, 2021, C088839) [nonpub. opn.].) After the appeal, the trial court held a hearing to determine the amount of fees owed and ordered administrator fees paid to Lopez, attorneys fees to the estate of Lopez’s former attorney Todd Peterson (for which respondent Peterson served as executor), fees to other attorneys who worked for Lopez on the case, and fees to the attorney for the bond insurance company. On March 2, 2023, respondents and the other attorneys owed fees from the trial court’s order (petitioners) petitioned for suspension of powers and removal of appellant as personal representative of the Harshine estate “all together as creditors of the [e]state of Jimmie Harshine.” The petition alleged appellant filed for bankruptcy requesting the debts “ordered [to be] paid by the [e]state[] be discharged in her personal bankruptcy action,” and alleged the trustee of appellant’s bankruptcy said appellant “may not serve as [administrator] of this [e]state during the pendency of her bankruptcy proceedings, as she is both [administrator] and beneficiary.” The petition further alleged appellant removed, rented, and sold estate property without proper accounting, and “attempted to close the [e]state and distribute the assets to [appellant] without payment of these debts or notice to