Garwood v. Garwood

2008 WY 129, 194 P.3d 319, 2008 Wyo. LEXIS 136, 2008 WL 4648404
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 22, 2008
DocketS-07-0235
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2008 WY 129 (Garwood v. Garwood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garwood v. Garwood, 2008 WY 129, 194 P.3d 319, 2008 Wyo. LEXIS 136, 2008 WL 4648404 (Wyo. 2008).

Opinions

HILL, Justice.

[T1] On May 2, 2006, Appellee, William J. Garwood (Mr. Garwood), initiated this lawsuit in order to have the district court direct the Appellants, who are the Trustees of the W.J. Garwood and Mildred E. Garwood Trust (Family Trust), to pay to him a sum of money sufficient to provide for his support in the manner to which he was accustomed. The Appellants are two of his three children, Carol Jones and Orlan Garwood. Judy Kechter was named as a defendant below because she is a Trustee, but she has aligned herself with her father in these proceedings. The Trust at issue was created by Mr. Garwood and his wife in 1992. Mrs. Garwood died in 2005.

[321]*321[¶ 2] When Mrs. Garwood died in 2005, the Trust split into a Family Trust and a Marital Trust. As had been the case while Mrs. Garwood was alive, Mr. Garwood continued to treat the assets of the Trusts as his own personal funds, and he did not abide by many of the terms of the Trust documents. He has now expended most of the funds that made up those Trusts in a manner that is contrary to some of the terms of the Trusts. Orlan O. Garwood and Carol A. Jones are the natural children of Mrs. Garwood from a prior marriage. Mr. Garwood adopted them shortly after he married Mrs. Garwood in 1951. A third child, Judy K. Kechter, was born of Mr. Garwood's marriage to Mrs. Garwood.

[¶ 3] In its judgment, the district court settled several matters relating to the Trusts and, in addition, directed the Trustees to ensure that Mr. Garwood receive at least $3,200.00 a month in income. A significant portion of that sum, about $2,000.00, will come from Mr. Garwood's social security benefits and interest he receives on a loan he made to his daughter, Judy Kechter. However, about $1,200.00 will have to come from the assets of the Family Trust at issue here. We will affirm the district court's judgment.

ISSUES

[14] Appellants raise these issues:

1. Whether the district court erred in its allocation of Trust Assets between the Marital Trust and the Family Trust.
2. Whether the district court erred in not appointing a corporate trustee as a means to protect remaining trust assets and provide for the professional management of the Family Trust.

Mr. Garwood agrees those are the issues to be decided.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

[¶ 5] In 1992, Mr. Garwood and Mrs. Garwood bought a Revocable Living Trust "kit" from the Somerset Group of Salt Lake City, Utah. One of the salient findings of the district court was that the Trust at issue here was of no earthly use to the Garwoods because they simply did not have enough assets to reap any of the estate tax benefits that spring from such a trust.1 Nonetheless, on April 21, 1992, the Garwoods executed the Trust documents and transferred some of their assets to that Trust. Of central concern in this case, is that the Trust included Mr. and Mrs. Garwood's home in Wheatland. Another prominent feature of the district court's findings was that both Mr. and Mrs. Garwood ignored the terms of the Trust and largely used their assets as though the Trust did not exist.

[T6] As noted above, Mrs. Garwood died in 2005. Under Article III of the Trust, that event caused the Trust to divide into two separate trusts, a Marital Trust and a Family Trust. Mr. Garwood was the Trustee of the Marital Trust and the Garwoods' three children were the Trustees of the Family Trust. The assets of the Garwoods were divided between the two Trusts as follows:

B. The Marital Trust shall consist of the survivor of the Undersigned's interest in all community property2 in the Trust Estate, the survivor of the Undersigned's separate property2 in the Trust Estate, and only such fractional interest in all other property of the first of the Undersigned to die that qualifies for the marital deduction under the Federal Estate Tax law as is necessary to reduce the Federal Estate taxes of the first of the Undersigned to die to the lowest possible amount, after considering and making al-lowanees for all deductions and exemptions and credits including but not limited to any credit available under section 2010 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, pertaining to the unified credit against estate tax, and the value of all other items which pass to or have passed [322]*322to the survivor of the Undersigned under the provisions of this Trust, by operation of law or otherwise, but only to the extent that such items are includable in the gross estate of the first of the Undersigned to die and are allowable as a marital deduction for Federal Estate Tax purposes. In the sole power and discretion of the Trustees, the payment of said fractional interest may be made wholly or partly in cash or property, which is fairly representative of appreciation or depreciation of all property available to satisfy this provision, as selected by the Trustees; provided, however, that such property so selected to constitute said fractional interest shall be valued at the value thereof as finally determined for estate tax purposes in the estate of the first of the Undersigned to die; provided, also in the event, the assets distributed under this provision as said fractional interest, are subsequently less in value at the time distributed than the value used for Federal Estate Tax purposes, the Trustees shall implement the Marital Trust, and shall add thereto from the Family Trust qualified assets in an amount sufficient to bring said fractional interest in the Marital Trust up to the Federal Estate Tax value; provided, further, that in no event shall there be included in the Marital Trust any of the separate assets of the first of the Undersigned to die, or the proceeds of said assets, which will not qualify for the marital deduction for Federal Estate Tax purposes.
C. The Marital Trust shall be held by the Trustees [Mr. Garwood], separately in Trust, for the following purposes:
1, The Trustees shall pay to the surviv- or of the Undersigned, all of the income of this Trust, in monthly or other convenient installments, but at least annually. The Trustees also shall pay as much of the principal of this trust to the survivor of the Undersigned as the survivor may request.
2. Upon the death of the survivor of the Undersigned, the Trustees shall distribute the then-remaining principal and undisbursed income of the Marital Trust, if any, to such person or persons, including the estate of the survivor, as the survivor shall appoint. Such appointment shall be made by the survivor amending this Marital Trust, or by the survivor referring to and by affirmatively exercising this power of appointment in his or her Last Will and Testament. [Underlining added for emphasis.]
3. Any principal and income of this Trust not effectively appointed by the survivor shall be added at the death of the survivor to the Family Trust and shall be held and administered as a part thereof; provided, however, that the Trustees may, in their discretion, first pay from the Marital Trust alone, the last illness and funeral expenses and any death taxes of the survivor of the Undersigned.
4.

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Bluebook (online)
2008 WY 129, 194 P.3d 319, 2008 Wyo. LEXIS 136, 2008 WL 4648404, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garwood-v-garwood-wyo-2008.