In Re Estate of Kiser v. Campbell

72 P.3d 425, 2003 Colo. App. LEXIS 605
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 24, 2003
DocketNo. 02CA0765
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 72 P.3d 425 (In Re Estate of Kiser v. Campbell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Estate of Kiser v. Campbell, 72 P.3d 425, 2003 Colo. App. LEXIS 605 (Colo. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge ROY.

In this probate proceeding, Kathryn McDonald Freedman, Susan Maul, Nanci Bur-chess Smith, and Craig Burchess (beneficiaries), appeal the trial court's judgment in favor of Monique Campbell (devisee) We affirm.

The issue here is whether, under the circumstances of this case, a parcel of real property (the property) passes under a trust agreement to beneficiaries or by testacy to devisee. We conclude that title passes by testacy.

Adeline M. Kiser (decedent) and her husband created a revocable trust. The trust was funded with, among other things, the property. The deed transferred the property from decedent and her husband to themselves as "co-trustees," but did not name the trust or its beneficiaries. In addition, no trust agreement or affidavit of trust specifying the trustees' powers or identifying the beneficiaries' names and addresses was recorded.

The trust agreement provided that upon the deaths of decedent and her husband, the residue and remainder of the trust estate would be distributed to the beneficiaries. It also provided that the trust could only be revoked in writing.

After decedent's husband died, she told her attorney that she wanted to revoke the trust. However, when he advised her that the trust might have formal revocation requirements which she must perform, decedent chose to avoid legal fees and directed that her attorney take no further action. While the parties stipulated that decedent wished to revoke the trust, it was never revoked.

Several years later, decedent executed her will, which bequeathed the property to devi-see. Upon the will being admitted to formal probate, decedent's personal representative petitioned the court to determine whether title to the property passed under decedent's will or pursuant to the trust. The parties submitted this question to the trial court on stipulated facts.

The trial court, relying on § 38-30-108, C.R.8.2002, concluded that the deed did not [428]*428convey the property to the trust; rather, it conveyed the property to decedent and her husband as tenants in common. Thus, the trial court concluded that devisee received decedent's one-half interest in the property, and the other one-half interest is held by the unprobated estate of decedent's husband. This appeal followed.

Because the trial court's decision resolved a question of law, based on stipulated facts, an unambiguous written instrument, and its interpretation of a statute, we review the decision de novo. See Evinger v. Greeley Gas Co., 902 P.2d 941 (Colo.App.1995).

L.

Initially, we address beneficiaries' assertion that § 38-80-108, which governs conveyances of real property to trusts, does not protect devisees and thus does not apply here. We disagree.

Section 38-80-108 states in pertinent part:

(1) An instrument conveying an interest in real property, in which the grantee is de-seribed as trustee ... shall also describe the representative capacity of such grantee by one or more of the following means: (a) Naming the person so represented; (b) Identifying the statute, the trust or other agreement, or the court appointment under which the grantee is acting; or (c) Referring, by proper description to book, page, document number, or file to an instrument, order, decree, or other writing containing any such description of the representative capacity of the grantee that is recorded with the county clerk and recorder in the county where the real property is located.
(2) If the representative capacity of the grantee is not described as provided in subsection (1) ... the description of a grantee in any such representative capacity in such instrument of conveyance shall be presumed to be a description of the person only and shall not be notice of the representative capacity of such grantee.

The fundamental purpose of § 38-30-108 is to provide notice to an interested party, whether the property has been conveyed to a trust. It is a notice statute that enbances the alienability of property. See generally Lagae v. Lackner, 996 P.2d 1281 (Colo.2000). The General Assembly's intent was to "give credence to actions of a trustee in selling, pledging as collateral, or otherwise dealing with trust property." Lagae v. Lackner, supra, 996 P.2d at 1285. The statutory presumption allows third parties to rely on actions of a trustee concerning trust property, "without having to determine whether the trustee is or is not complying with his or her fiduciary duty to the trust beneficiaries." Lagae v. Lackner, supra, 996 P.2d at 1285-86.

When a deed does not name the beneficiaries or refer to the public record containing this information, and is thus noneompli-ant with the statutory notice requirement, the statute "(1) protects subsequent takers [of the property] by eliminating their duty of inquiry to ascertain the nature and effect of a trust relationship; and (2) prevents the undisclosed beneficiaries from contesting the interest of subsequent takers who obtained the property from the trustee or through the trustee's chain of title." Lagae v. Lackner, supra, 996 P.2d at 1286.

If the statute did not protect devi-sees, then a devisee would be foreed to inquire into the trustee's fiduciary duty to determine the quality of the devisee's title to trust property. Hence, we agree with devi-see that the purposes of § 38-30-108 as described in Lagae v. Lackner are broad enough to protect devisees.

Beneficiaries correctly note that the statute most often avoids problems faced by third parties who are "bona fide purchasers, lessees, mortgagees, or assignees" of trust property. Lagae v. Lackner, supra, 996 P.2d at 1287. However, unlike similar statutes in several other states, § 38-80-108 does not expressly limit those who may benefit from lack of the required notice. CJL, Ariz.Rev. Stat. § 88-404 (2002); Mont.Code Ann. § 70-21-8307 (2002); Neb.Rev.Stat. § 76-268 (2002).

Moreover, although the phrase is not defined in Lagae v. Lackner, supra, in our view "subsequent takers" includes devisees. [429]*429The term "taker" means "[a] person who acquires, [especially] one who receives property by will, by power of appointment, or by intestate succession." Black's Law Dictionary 1467 (Tth ed.1999).

Accordingly, we conclude that the statute protects devisees in addition to bona fide purchasers and similar parties. See Avi-Comm, Inc. v. Colorado Public Utilities Commission, 955 P.2d 1023 (Colo.1998)(the court must give effect to the statute's plain and ordinary meaning and presume that the General Assembly intended a just and reasonable result) We agree with the trial court that to find otherwise would lead to an inconsistent and nonsensical result.

Thus, because the sole issue in this case is whether the deed at issue is sufficient to convey the property to the trust or whether devisee was bequeathed the property, we find that the statute is clearly applicable in this case.

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Related

In Re Estate of Kiser
72 P.3d 425 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2003)

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Bluebook (online)
72 P.3d 425, 2003 Colo. App. LEXIS 605, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-kiser-v-campbell-coloctapp-2003.