Bravo v. Sauter

727 So. 2d 1103
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 10, 1999
Docket97-1576, 97-2512
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 727 So. 2d 1103 (Bravo v. Sauter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bravo v. Sauter, 727 So. 2d 1103 (Fla. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

727 So.2d 1103 (1999)

Rose BRAVO, Appellant,
v.
Matilda SAUTER, as Successor Trustee of the Vincent J. Bravo Revocable Trust Agreement (as amended), and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Vincent J. Bravo, Deceased, Appellee.

Nos. 97-1576, 97-2512.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

March 10, 1999.

*1104 William Jay Palmer and Steven D. Ginsburg of Adorno & Zeder, P.A., Miami, for appellant.

James A. Herb and Jennifer L. Fulton of Herb & Mednick, Boca Raton, for appellee.

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

WARNER, J.

We withdraw our previously issued opinion and substitute the following in its place.

This case raises an issue of first impression in the field of estates and trusts. In brief, the question raised is does the surviving spouse forego her right to trust income where a decedent leaves an estate plan consisting of a pour-over will and a partially funded revocable inter vivos trust, but the surviving spouse takes an elective share in the estate? We hold that the wife does not lose her interest in the trust even though that interest may be paid from assets that pour over from the estate.

On January 2, 1980, Vincent J. Bravo ("decedent") created an inter vivos revocable trust agreement and executed his last will and testament. Approximately seven months after the decedent married appellant Rose Bravo (hereinafter referred to as "Bravo"), he amended his will and trust to substitute Bravo in place of his first wife who had predeceased him. The decedent died in 1993, and in his will he specifically devised a *1105 life estate to Bravo of all his tangible personal property, with its remainder to his children from his first marriage. The will provided that upon the decedent's death, the rest, residue and remainder of the property, both real and personal, would pour over to the trust, which allowed income for life to Bravo and distribution upon Bravo's death to the decedent's children, one of whom was Matilda Sauter (hereinafter referred to as "Sauter"), who was also the successor trustee of the trust and personal representative of the decedent's estate.

Bravo made an election, pursuant to section 732.201, Florida Statutes (1993), to claim an elective share in the decedent's probate estate. Sauter then contested Bravo's right to share in the trust since she had taken her statutory elective share of the estate. After many proceedings, the trial court ruled that Bravo's election to take her statutory share of the estate did not preclude her from receiving her beneficial interest in the trust. Additionally, the court made other rulings concerning the trust accounting. Bravo appeals the issues with respect to payment of certain expenses and the trust accounting, and Sauter cross-appeals the trial court's ruling as to Bravo's interest in the trust. We consider first the issue on cross-appeal.

Pursuant to section 732.513(1), Florida Statutes (1979), a testator could devise a "pour-over" of the residue of his estate to a trust that was already in existence. If the trust and will were executed concurrently, the written instrument establishing the trust must be identified in the will. See § 732.513(1). The decedent's will and trust included such a "pour-over" provision whereby the remainder assets of the estate would be placed into the inter vivos trust created by the testator. The trust authorized payment of income from the trust to Bravo for life and, upon her death, provided for distribution of the trust estate to the children of the decedent.

Sauter argues that the court erred in finding that by taking her elective share of the estate, Bravo did not forego her right to income from the remaining assets of the estate which poured over to the trust. She claims that application of section 732.211, Florida Statutes (1993), requires Bravo to lose any interest in the trust. That section, entitled "Effect of exercise of right of election on testamentary or statutory disposition," provides:

If an election is filed, the remaining assets of the estate after payment of the elective share shall be distributed as though the surviving spouse had predeceased the decedent.

While the application of this statute may be clear that the spouse loses any interest in the trust where the decedent's will provides for distribution to the spouse or to a testamentary trust created for the spouse, see Tarbox v. Palmer, 564 So.2d 1106, 1107 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990), this is a case of first impression at the appellate level as to whether the spouse's interest is likewise terminated in an inter vivos trust.

This identical issue has been addressed in Lorch v. Mercantile Trust Co. National Ass'n, 651 S.W.2d 540 (Mo.Ct.App.1983), a case which is factually "on all fours" with the present case. In Lorch, the decedent set up a revocable inter vivos trust and also executed a will with a "pour-over" provision very similar in content to the decedent's will in this case. The wife elected to take her statutory share of the estate and obtained a declaratory judgment that she could also receive the income from the trust during her lifetime in accordance with the trust provisions. The trustee appealed, and the Missouri appellate court rejected the trustee's argument that the surviving spouse had obtained "double benefits" from the same assets by electing against the will and then claiming her interest in the inter vivos trust, finding that "[b]ecause the trust in the case under review is inter vivos rather than testamentary in character, the disposition of the residue of the testator's estate is made to a trust which functions independently of the will." Id. at 542. The court then noted the following with regard to the effects of a surviving spouse's election against the decedent's will on the spouse's beneficial interest in the assets transferred to a trust by a pour-over provision in a will:

If ... the trust, at least when it is funded, has significance independently of the will, *1106 then so does the trust provision for the surviving spouse, and the spouse could not be viewed to take entirely by virtue of the will. The devise or bequest would seem to be to the trustee in its fiduciary capacity, not to the spouse. Breaking the chain of events down into steps, the will only goes so far as to give the trustee the devise or bequest; the trustee then, on his own, pays over what the trust instrument provides for the spouse.

Id. (quoting Thomas P. Atkins, Note, Surviving Spouse's Election and Acceleration of Remainders in Pour-Over Trusts, 41 U. Cinn. Law Rev. 441, 448 (1972))(footnotes omitted). Accordingly, the Missouri appellate court upheld the surviving spouse's right to retain a beneficial interest in the inter vivos trust, concluding that the decedent's will had effected a conveyance of the residuary to the trustee, who was then independently directed by the trust agreement. See id.; see also Carnahan v. Stallman, 29 Ohio App.3d 293, 504 N.E.2d 1218, 1220-21 (1986).

Sauter cites In re Clark's Estate, 8 Pa. D. & C.2d 665 (Orphans' Ct.1956), in contravention of Lorch. In Clark, the court held that a widow electing to take against the will could not then receive any beneficial interest in assets from a pour-over inter vivos trust. However, Lorch distinguishes Clark

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Bluebook (online)
727 So. 2d 1103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bravo-v-sauter-fladistctapp-1999.