Estate, Trust & Elder Abuse Litigation

Pestotnik + Gold LLP’s lawyers have handled a variety of estate, trust and elder abuse litigation matters filed in superior courts and probate courts in California. Although trust and estate litigation involves the particular duties of trustees and fiduciaries and their alleged breaches, the lawsuits involve many of the same type of claims our lawyers have litigated for many years involving other fiduciaries such as corporate officers and directors, partners, and members of limited liability companies. For example, our lawyers handle trust, estate and probate cases alleging claims for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, accounting, injunctive relief, financial elder abuse, and torts such as negligence, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation. Examples include:

Northern Trust Co.
Our lawyers represented Northern Trust, as the institutional trustee, in a claim against the trustee by a significant beneficiary claiming malfeasance of various types.

In re Prewitt.

Our firm represented a trust beneficiary in her attempt, among other things, to replace an individual trustee with an institutional trustee after the beneficiary’s father died and a trust dispute arose.  We successfully replaced the individual trustee with the client’s choice for an institutional trustee; and we successfully negotiated the distribution of substantial trust assets to our client. 

Estate of Nunn.
Our firm was appointed by the Probate Court in Orange County, California to pursue a financial elder abuse case on behalf of the decedent’s estate. Our firm pursued an action against a tenant who acquired title to her landlord’s house six weeks prior to the landlord’s admission to the hospital for severe Alzheimer’s dementia. Our firm recovered the entire value of the property as well as part of our attorneys’ fees and costs.

Recabaren Family Trust.
Our lawyers represented remainder beneficiaries of a trust to preserve their beneficial interest in valuable San Diego real estate. The case involved the intertwined fiduciary duties of trustees and corporate officers and directors. The case settled through a complicated negotiation that resulted in the clients obtaining early ownership and control of the real estate.

Barnett v. Park, et al.
In a financial elder abuse case, our firm obtained a temporary restraining order and then recovered over 92% of the cash we alleged a health care worker and property manager wrongfully took from an elderly woman and transferred to various bank accounts. Working closely and cooperatively with the banks involved, we preserved the elder’s assets, without needlessly increasing fees and expenses for third parties such as banks and tenants who were unwittingly involved in the defendants’ scheme.