Estate of Johnston

252 Cal. App. 2d 923, 60 Cal. Rptr. 852
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 27, 1967
DocketCiv. No. 23782
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 252 Cal. App. 2d 923 (Estate of Johnston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Johnston, 252 Cal. App. 2d 923, 60 Cal. Rptr. 852 (Cal. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

252 Cal.App.2d 923 (1967)

Estate of ELIZABETH I. JOHNSTON, Deceased. CROCKER-CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents,
v.
MARIE ELIZABETH JOHNSTON, a Minor, etc., et al., Objectors and Appellants.

Civ. No. 23782.

California Court of Appeals. First Dist., Div. One.

July 27, 1967.

Noland, Hamerly, Etienne & Fulton, Henry B. Fulton and J. Brian Finegan for Objectors and Appellants.

Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel and John B. Stohlton for Plaintiffs and Respondents.

MOLINARI, P. J.

Janine J. Johnston, as guardian for her minor children, Marie and Carole Johnston, appeals from an order of the trial court which in relevant part instructed Crocker-Citizens National Bank, the executor of the will of Elizabeth I. Johnston and testamentary trustee under that will, that it shall not honor any writs of execution or attachment levied against Joseph Johnston, the beneficiary of a trust created by Elizabeth Johnston's will, in the absence of a judicial determination that the income of the subject trust is in excess of amounts needed by the beneficiary for his support, maintenance, or education.

Questions Presented

1. Is the child of a beneficiary of a spendthrift trust a special creditor who may enforce support claims against the father's beneficial interest in the trust without a determination that the trust income contains a surplus over and above the amount needed for the support of the father?

2. Where a beneficiary of a spendthrift trust has removed himself and his assets from the jurisdiction and has given express instructions to the trustee for delivery of disbursements outside the jurisdiction, does the trustee at some point in the disbursement procedure become an agent of the beneficiary for receipt of the proceeds, making such proceeds available to the creditors of the beneficiary within the jurisdiction?

Statement of the Case

By the terms of the will of Elizabeth I. Johnston, who died on November 8, 1962, two-thirds of the residue of her estate is to be held in trust for the benefit of her son, Joseph Johnston. The will further provided that during Joseph's lifetime the trustee is to pay Joseph all of the net income of the trust and is further authorized to invade principal to a limited extent to allow Joseph to avail himself of any business opportunity or to establish himself in a business, trade, or profession; and *925 that upon the death of Joseph the undistributed income and principal is to be distributed to Joseph's then living issue. Included among the provisions of the trust is a spendthrift provision. [fn. 1]

On April 23, 1964 Joseph's wife, Janine, obtained an interlocutory decree of divorce from Joseph. Included in that decree was an order that Joseph make payments for the support of Carole and Marie, the two children of his marriage to Janine. Thereafter, the sheriff of Monterey County served upon Crocker-Citizens National Bank, as trustee of the trust for Joseph's benefit, a writ of execution for amounts due from Joseph for child support under the divorce decree obtained by Janine. Thereupon Crocker-Citizens National Bank instituted the instant action seeking instructions as to whether it should pay any funds to the sheriff under the writ of execution levied upon it.

Validity of Spendthrift Provision Against Beneficiary's Child

[1] In California a spendthrift trust, that is, a trust the terms of which provide that the beneficiary cannot assign or otherwise alienate his interest and that his interest shall not be subject to the claims of his creditors, is recognized as a valid form of trust. (McColgan v. Magee, Inc., 172 Cal. 182, 186 [155 P. 995]; Seymour v. McAvoy, 121 Cal. 438, 442 [53 P. 946, 41 L.R.A. 544]; Canfield v. Security-First Nat. Bank, 13 Cal.2d 1, 11 [87 P.2d 830]; and see Civ. Code, 867.) [fn. 2] [2] The validity of a spendthrift provision in a trust is predicated upon the consideration that a person is free to make any desired disposition of his property. (Seymour v. McAvoy, supra, at p. 443; San Diego Trust etc. Bank v. *926 Heustis, 121 Cal.App. 675, 684 [10 P.2d 158]; Canfield v. Security-First Nat. Bank, supra.) [3] However, California, by statute, has imposed a restriction upon the power of a trustor to create a spendthrift trust in which the beneficiary's interest is entirely immune from the claims of the beneficiary's creditors. That restriction is codified in section 859, which has been held to be applicable to spendthrift trusts (see Canfield v. Security-First Nat. Bank, supra, at p. 12, and cases cited therein) and which provides as follows: "Where a trust is created to receive the rents and profits of real or personal property, and no valid direction for accumulation is given, the surplus of such rents and profits, beyond the sum that may be necessary for the education and support of the person for whose benefit the trust is created, is liable to the claims of the creditors of such person, in the same manner as personal property which can not be reached by execution." Based upon this section, therefore, and the cases which have construed it, it is settled in California that the creditors of the beneficiary of a spendthrift trust may reach any income of the trust which is in excess of the amount needed by the beneficiary for support and education. (Canfield v. Security-First-Nat. Bank, supra, at pp. 12-13; Alvis v. Bank of America, 95 Cal.App.2d 118, 124-125 [212 P.2d 608, 36 A.L.R.2d 1209].)

In the instant case, however, Janine, in seeking a writ of execution against Joseph's beneficial interest in the testamentary trust created by Elizabeth, does not purport to base her claim to this money on a showing that under section 859 Joseph's beneficial interest in the trust exceeds the amount which is reasonably needed by him for his support. According to the record before us Janine has at no time sought or obtained a judicial determination as to the amount of such income which is reasonably necessary for Joseph's support. Rather, in levying a writ of execution upon Crocker- Citizens National Bank and in prosecuting this appeal, Janine takes the position that the child of a beneficiary of a spendthrift trust is a special creditor who may enforce support claims against the father's beneficial interest in the trust regardless of spendthrift provisions in the trust and regardless of whether or not the income of the trust exceeds that amount necessary for the support of the beneficiary.

While no California case has considered the question of the right of a child of a beneficiary of a spendthrift trust to reach the beneficiary's interest in the trust in order to enforce the *927 child's support claims, it has been held in this state, in a case involving the question of the availability of the beneficiary's interest in a spendthrift trust to satisfy the claims of the beneficiary's wife for alimony or support, that the divorced wife, as the beneficiary of an alimony decree, has no status different from that of other judgment creditors. (See San Diego Trust etc. Bank v. Heustis, supra, 121 Cal.App. 675, at pp. 688-689; Thomas v. Thomas, 192 Cal.App.2d 771, 783 [13 Cal.Rptr. 872].) The Heustis case, in concluding that to prohibit the wife from reaching the trust assets did not contravene public policy, rationalized that "...

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Marriage of L.R. and K.A.
California Court of Appeal, 2021
Bendon v. Reynolds (In Re Reynolds)
479 B.R. 67 (Ninth Circuit, 2012)
Parscal v. Parscal
148 Cal. App. 3d 1098 (California Court of Appeal, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
252 Cal. App. 2d 923, 60 Cal. Rptr. 852, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-johnston-calctapp-1967.