Webster v. Webster CA4/3

Filed 11/29/21 Webster v. Webster CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

WILLIAM WEBSTER et al.,

Plaintiffs and Appellants, G059682

v. (Super. Ct. No. 30-2015-00816628)

ROBERTA LEE WEBSTER, as Trustee, OPINION etc.,

Defendant and Respondent.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Jacki C. Brown, Judge. Affirmed. Law Offices of Barron E. Ramos and Barron E. Ramos for Plaintiffs and Appellants. John Anderson Law and Todd C. Anderson for Defendant and Respondent.

INTRODUCTION This case presents the type of sad situation we see too often for comfort – family members locked in acrimonious litigation. Appellants William Webster and his sister, Cynthia Lazzaro, challenged their mother’s actions as trustee over property and funds following the death of their father. William and Cynthia’s 1 mother, respondent Roberta Webster, undertook litigation of her own, attempting to evict William from trust property and seeking its partition. In the end, the three of them were left only with a set of relationships damaged probably beyond repair – or, in the words of the trial court “the complete disintegration of a family following the demise of the patriarch.” In this appeal, however, our focus is narrow. William and Cynthia do not challenge the substance of the court’s judgment, but rather the ruling denying their separate petition for attorney fees under Probate Code section 17211, subdivision (b). 2 Given our deferential standard of review, we find no error. FACTS Roberta, a special education teacher, and her husband Walter, an attorney, had three children: David (who predeceased his parents) Cynthia, and William. 3 Walter handled all of the family’s finances and did not share much of what he knew with anyone else. As the “keeper of the keys,” Walter also apparently did not mind being in control of his children’s financial lives. When Cynthia became a young widow, Walter assisted her in purchasing a property in San Clemente in 1997 – referred to by the parties as the Mastil property – by obtaining a mortgage loan in his own name. According to Cynthia, she gave her father part of the down payment. And Walter told her that if she paid him a certain amount of money to cover the mortgage and paid the homeowners association