Norcia v. Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n

California Court of Appeal Jul 21, 1938 No. Civ. 6101Published

Before: Thompson

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Holding. The probate court lacks jurisdiction to determine the title to property held in a trust when the executor does not claim the property in an individual capacity and the dispute involves a third party or entity.

Issues

Does a probate court have jurisdiction to determine the title to property held in a trust when the executor makes no individual claim to said property?
Is a probate court authorized to order an executor to include trust funds in an estate inventory when the title to those funds is in dispute?

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“It is undoubtedly the rule that the superior court sitting in probate is without jurisdiction to try the question of title to property as between a representative of the estate and strangers to the estate.”

“But if claimed by or on behalf of a stranger to the estate, the probate court has no jurisdiction to determine the controversy.”

[665]

THOMPSON, J.

From an order refusing to direct the executor of the estate of Francesco Inghilleri, deceased, to include in the inventory as property of the estate a fund belonging to a voluntary trust, the petitioner has appealed.

It is contended the declaration of trust is testamentary in character and void and that the fund created thereby is the property of the estate of said deceased.

Francesco and Rose Inghilleri were husband and wife. April 9, 1927, he executed a voluntary trust agreement for the handling of a fund of $8,100, by the terms of which the Bank of Italy National Trust and Savings Association, now the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, was constituted trustee. This money was the separate property of the decedent. The trust was ratified and approved in writing by Rose Inghilleri and accepted by the bank. July 29, 1927, the trustor executed a will, by the terms of which he devised and bequeathed all of his property to his wife, Rose, in the event that she survived him. Otherwise the property was bequeathed to other named relatives. The Bank of Italy National Trust and Savings Association was also named as executor of the will. May 5, 1933, Rose Inghilleri died. On September 2, 1934, Francesco married Matilda Inghilleri. Francesco executed no other will. January 18, 1937, he died. Upon application therefor, the will was admitted to probate, and the bank was appointed and duly qualified as executor thereof. In due time an inventory was filed in his estate which did not include the fund involved in the declaration of trust, which is in the form of cash in the amount of $9,230.13. Matilda Inghilleri filed in the above-entitled estate her petition reciting the foregoing facts and praying for an order requiring the executor to file his amended inventory including therein, as the property of the estate, said trust fund amounting to the sum of $9,230.13. To that petition the executor filed an answer denying that said sum belongs to the estate of said deceased or that it ever came into the possession of the executor. The petition was heard by the probate court and denied. From that order the petitioner appealed.

The court correctly refused to direct the executor of the estate of Francesco Inghilleri, deceased, to include in the inventory as the property of the estate the trust fund. The

Norcia v. Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n

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THOMPSON, J.

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