Garwood v. Garwood

2010 WY 91, 233 P.3d 977, 2010 Wyo. LEXIS 95, 2010 WL 2573793
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedJune 29, 2010
DocketS-09-0092
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 2010 WY 91 (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, 2010 WY 91, 233 P.3d 977, 2010 Wyo. LEXIS 95, 2010 WL 2573793 (Wyo. 2010).

Opinion

GOLDEN, Justice.

[11] On May 2, 2006, Appellee, William J. Garwood (Mr. Garwood), filed a lawsuit seeking an order directing the Appellants (Trustees), who are two of Appellee's three children and two of the three designated Trustees of the W.J. Garwood and Mildred E. Garwood Trust (Family Trust), to pay to him a sum of money from the Family Trust sufficient to provide for his support, as provided by the terms of the Trust. The district court issued an order allocating trust assets and directing payments to Mr. Garwood, the Trustees appealed, and on October 22, 2008, this Court issued its decision affirming that district court order. See Garwood v. Garwood, 2008 WY 129, 194 P.3d 319 (Wyo.2008) (Garwood I ).

[12] This matter is again before this Court, this time on the Trustees' appeal from a subsequent order of the district court directing the Trustees to reimburse the Family Trust for amounts the Trustees withdrew from the trust for payment of their attorneys' fees and costs. We affirm.

ISSUES

[13] The Trustees present the following issues on appeal:

1. Is it contrary to the Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure and Wyoming law for the District Court to issue a Supplemental Order purporting to expand the judgment in the underlying matter nearly two years after the District Court entered its judgment and more than five months after this Court affirmed the District Court's judgment?
*980 2. Did the District Court's Supplemental Order erroneously award a judgment against individuals that were not parties to Appellee's underlying Complaint?
8. Did the District Court's Supplemental Order violate the rights of Orlan O. Garwood and Carol A. Jones individually by levying a judgment against them without notice of the claim or a meaningful opportunity to be heard opposing such claim?
4. Is the District Court's Supplemental Order contrary to Wyoming's Uniform Trust Code?

FACTS

[14] The facts underlying the original dispute between these parties over the Family Trust assets and Mr. Garwood's entitlement to subsistence payments from that trust are set forth in our opinion in Garwood I, 2008 WY 129, 194 P.3d 319, and we will not restate that detailed recitation of facts here, exeept as necessary to frame the current issues.

[T5] Mr. Garwood and his wife, Mildred Garwood, were married in 1951. The Appellant Trustees in this matter, 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. Judy Kechter is named in the district court proceedings as a party to this litigation in alignment with her father, but she has had limited involvement in the proceedings and is not represented by counsel.

[T6] In 1992, Mr. and Mrs. Garwood purchased a Revocable Living Trust "kit" from a door-to-door salesman representing Somerset Group of Salt Lake City, Utah. The district court found, and we agreed in our Garwood I decision, that the trust was of no earthly use to the Garwoods. Garwood I, ¶ 5, 194 P.3d at 321. As we noted, at its peak, the Garwoods' estate was valued at about $400,000, and at that time, adverse estate tax consequences did not arise until the estate was over $1,200,000 (if both were living) and $600,000 (if only one of the two were living). Nonetheless, on April 21, 1992, Mr. and Mrs. Garwood executed the trust documents and transferred some of their assets, including their home in Wheatland, into a trust.

[17] After executing the trust documents, Mr. and Mrs. Garwood ignored the terms and requirements of the trust and largely used their assets as though the trust did not exist. In 2005, Mrs. Garwood passed away, and that event caused the trust to divide into two separate trusts: the Marital Trust and the Family Trust. Mr. Garwood was the trustee of the Marital Trust, and the Garwoods' three children were the trustees of the Family Trust. Even after Mrs. Garwood's death and the division of the trust, all of the parties to this litigation continued to ignore the Trusts.

[18] The disregard of the Trusts and neglect by all Trustees to follow the terms of the Trusts continued until a dispute arose in 2006. In 2006, Mr. Garwood needed money to live on because the Marital Trust's cash assets had been expended and his income was not sufficient to cover his on-going expenses. Mr. Garwood, who had in 2006 moved from Wheatland to Cheyenne, therefore desired to sell his Wheatland home. Title to the Wheatland home was, however, in the Family Trust, and a majority of the Trustees of the Family Trust would not approve the home's sale. Specifically, Orlan Garwood and Carol Jones objected to the sale of the Wheatland home, while Judy Kechter did not object to the home's sale.

[19] Because the Trustees refused to approve the sale of Mr. Garwood's Wheatland home, Mr. Garwood filed a complaint in district court. Through that action, Mr. Garwood sought an order directing the Trustees of the Family Trust to liquidate the Wheatland home and pay Mr. Garwood subsistence payments from the proceeds. The Trustees, Orlan Garwood and Carol Jones, filed an answer and counterclaim seeking an order directing Mr. Garwood to repay to the Trusts sums of money that they contended he had expended in violation of the terms of the Trusts.

*981 [410] On June 11, 2007, the district court issued a decision letter that, although it ordered Mr. Garwood to repay roughly $21,000 to the Family Trust, generally ruled in Mr. Garwood's favor and directed the Trustees to liquidate the Wheatland home and ensure that Mr. Garwood's monthly income from the Trusts and any other sources totaled at least $3,200 per month. On July 2, 2007, the district court entered its judgment in Garwood I, and on July 80, 2007, the Trustees filed their notice of appeal. We issued our decision affirming the district court's judgment on October 22, 2008.

[T11] After the district court entered its judgment in Garwood I, and while the Trustees' appeal was pending, motions and applications continued to be filed with the district court. The first was Mr. Garwood's application for attorneys' fees and costs in the amount of $20,559.85, which was filed on July 3, 2007, the day after the district court entered its judgment in Garwood I. Mr. Garwood's application was made pursuant to Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 4-10-1004, the Uniform Trust Code provision governing attorneys' fees and costs, and included an itemized statement of the services and fees of Mr. Garwood's attorney. On July 18, 2007, the Trustees filed their response objecting to Mr. Garwood's application for fees and costs. The Trustees argued that attorneys' fees and expenses are not automatically paid under the Uniform Trust Code and that Mr. Garwood had failed to show that justice and equity required payment of his fees from the Trust or that the fees applied for were reasonable and customary.

[112] On August 2, 2007, Mr. Garwood filed another application with the district court, this one seeking an order directing the Trustees to make payments to Mr. Garwood totaling $58,300 to allow him to purchase a wheel chair, hearing aids and a wheel chair accessible van.

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

Related

Mantle v. N. Star Energy & Constr. LLC
441 P.3d 841 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 2019)
Skyline Potato Co. v. Hi-Land Potato Co.
188 F. Supp. 3d 1097 (D. New Mexico, 2016)
Jeff Lokey v. Mike Irwin
2016 WY 50 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 2016)
Harold H. Dishman v. First Interstate Bank
2015 WY 154 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 2015)
Khalsa v. Puri
2015 NMCA 027 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2015)
Khalsa v.Purl
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2014
Shelton v. Tamposi
62 A.3d 741 (Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 2013)
Shurtleff v. United Effort Plan Trust
2012 UT 47 (Utah Supreme Court, 2012)
Thorkildsen v. Belden
2011 WY 26 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2010 WY 91, 233 P.3d 977, 2010 Wyo. LEXIS 95, 2010 WL 2573793, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garwood-v-garwood-wyo-2010.