Hemphill v. Shore

289 P.3d 1173, 295 Kan. 1110, 2012 WL 6082936, 2012 Kan. LEXIS 514
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedDecember 7, 2012
DocketNo. 102,938
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 289 P.3d 1173 (Hemphill v. Shore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hemphill v. Shore, 289 P.3d 1173, 295 Kan. 1110, 2012 WL 6082936, 2012 Kan. LEXIS 514 (kan 2012).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Beier, J.:

Plaintiff Daniel L. Hemphill appeals the district court’s statute of limitations dismissal of his lawsuit against his uncle, defendant Jay F. Shore, as trustee of the Shore Family Trust. The Court of Appeals affirmed in Hemphill v. Shore, 44 Kan. App. 2d 595, 239 P.3d 885 (2010), and we accepted this appeal on Hemphill’s petition for review.

We hold that three of four of Hemphill’s causes of action are time barred, but his claim based on constructive fraud survives. The controlling trust instrument established a confidential relationship between plaintiff as beneficiary and defendant as trustee, and it limited defendant’s discretion to pay out income and distribute proceeds from the sale of principal to provide only for defendant’s health, education, support, or maintenance. Plaintiff has alleged that defendant did both for merely personal purposes and that plaintiff was unaware of the trust and defendant’s actions until within 2 years before filing suit. We thus affirm in part and reverse in part die rulings of the district court judge and die Court of Appeals panel and remand to the district court for further proceedings.

Factual and Procedural Background

In 1984, grantors Lee Shore and Linna S. Shore created the Shore Family Trust. The principal of the irrevocable trust consisted of farmland in Stanton County. The trust instrument designated as “principal beneficiaries” the grantors’ children, defendant Jay and plaintiff s mother, Susan; their spouses; and “any children subse[1112]*1112quently bom to Jay and Susan.” Jay and Susan were named trustees; on the death of one, the other was designated to continue as sole trustee.

Other potentially pertinent provisions of the trust instrument read:

“ARTICLE IV
“DISPOSITIVE PROVISIONS
“The Trustee shall hold the trust property for the primary benefit of tire principal beneficiaries ....
“B. General Dispositive Provisions. . . .
“1. Lifetime Disposition of The Shore Family Trust. During the lifetimes of Jay F. Shore and Susan L. Shore, the Trustee, in said Trustee’s sole discretion, shall pay the income of The Shore Family Trust to Jay F. Shore and Susan L. Shore and/or their issue, in such amounts as the Trustee may deem necessary to provide for said income beneficiaries’ health, education, support or maintenance.
“In the event tire income of The Shore Family Trust is insufficient, in the Trustee’s sole discretion, to provide for the health, education, support or maintenance of Jay F. Shore and Susan L. Shore, the Trustee may invade the principal of The Shore Family Trust to the extent said Trustee deems necessary to provide for the benefit of Jay F. Shore and Susan L. Shore.
“2. Termination. If not earlier terminated by distribution of all assets under the foregoing provisions, The Shore Family Trust shall terminate upon the death of the survivor of Jay F. Shore or Susan L. Shore. On termination, the Trustee shall distribute one-half (½) of the then remaining assets of The Shore Family Trust, including any undistributed income therefrom or any part thereof to the children of Jay F. Shore in equal shares, per stirpes; and one-half (1/2) of the then remaining assets of The Shore Family Trust, including any undistributed income therefrom or any part thereof to the children of Susan L. Shore, in equal shares, per stirpes....
“ARTILE VII
“TRUST ADMINISTRATION
“G. Accounting by Trustee. The Trustee may render an accounting at any time to the beneficiaries of the trusts created herein, and the written approval of a beneficiary shall be final, binding and conclusive upon any person then or thereafter interested in the trust for that beneficiary.
“I. Discretionary Termination. Notwithstanding any other provision of this instrument, if the Trustee, in said Trustee’s sole and absolute discretion, determines [1113]*1113that the expense of continuing a trust created hereunder has become greater than the trust assets and the existing situation warrant, the Trustee may terminate such trust and distribute the trust property, including any undistributed income, to the persons then entitled to income, with one (1) share distributed to each beneficiary surviving, and the share of any predeceased named beneficiary shall be distributed to their issue, per stirpes.
“K. Reports. The Tiustee shall render periodic reports at least annually, to each beneficiary then eligible to receive the current income of the trust. Each report shall show all receipts, disbursements and distributions during the period covered, and tire assets then held in the trust. The Trustee’s records shall be open at all reasonable times to the inspection of the beneficiaries of any Trust and to their accredited representatives.
“M. Trustee Guidelines. Without in any way limiting the discretion herein given to the Trustee, Grantor suggests that the primary purpose of The Shore Family Trust is to provide for tire specified needs of Jay F. Shore and Susan L. Shore in equal shares; and provided their needs are satisfied to provide for the specified needs of the children of Jay F. Shore and Susan L. Shore; and provided their needs are satisfied, to provide for tire specified needs of the issue of the children of Jay F. Shore and Susan L. Shore.”

Susan died on January 20, 1992, leaving plaintiff Hemphill as her only child. According to plaintiff s response to the defense motion to dismiss in this case, plaintiff, who was age 7 or younger when his mother died, was unaware of the trust or its provisions until his grandmother’s estate was probated in 2008. Neither he nor his natural guardian had ever received a report on the existence of the trust or the status of its assets.

Plaintiff filed this lawsuit on April 8, 2009, attaching a copy of the trust instrument to his petition.

In Plaintiff s second amended petition, which the district judge permitted to be filed at the same time he ruled on the motion to dismiss, plaintiff alleged that defendant sold the farmland that formed the principal of the trust and “distributed all or a substantial portion of the proceeds to himself, which proceeds were, upon information and belief, used by Defendant for his own personal purposes”; that “Defendant’s actions were self-dealing and a violation of tire Declaration of Trust, the intent of the Trust,” his obligations under the Kansas Uniform Trust Code and applicable prior law, and “his various duties as a trustee of the Trust, including [1114]*1114the duty of loyally and duty of good faith and fair dealing”; that the “principal and income of the trust were . . . knowingly converted by Defendant to his own personal use in violation of the express and implied terms of tire trust and the intent of the trust settl[o]rs”; and that defendant

“was a fiduciary witli respect to Plaintiff, and violated his fiduciary duty and duty of loyalty by converting the principal and income of the Trust to his own personal use immediately after the death of Plaintiff s mother.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
289 P.3d 1173, 295 Kan. 1110, 2012 WL 6082936, 2012 Kan. LEXIS 514, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hemphill-v-shore-kan-2012.