Yeomans v. Stackpole

31 Mass. L. Rptr. 85
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedApril 13, 2013
DocketNo. MICV201101702F
StatusPublished

This text of 31 Mass. L. Rptr. 85 (Yeomans v. Stackpole) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yeomans v. Stackpole, 31 Mass. L. Rptr. 85 (Mass. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Curran, Dennis J., J.

This dispute stems from Attorney John J. Roche’s actions in administrating a trust for which he served as co-trustee. Attorney Roche drafted the 1997 trust documents and acted as a co-trustee, and the lone managing trustee, from 1999 until his death in 2006. Christina Ursul, a beneficiary of the trust, and Frank Yeomans, the current trustee, have brought this suit against Attorney Roche’s estate, and two law firms with which he was associated, alleging that Attorney Roche violated his fiduciary duty to the trust by improperly managing the trust assets, significantly depleting the trust funds. This case is currently before the Court on Taylor, Ganson & Perrin, LLP’s motion for summary judgment. The motion is joined, in part, by Attorney Roche’s wife, Judith Stackpole, in her capacity as Executrix of Attorney Roche’s Will. For the following reasons, the motion for summary judgment must be ALLOWED as to Taylor, Ganson, & Perrin, LLP.

BACKGROUND

The undisputed facts, as revealed by the summary judgment record, are as follows.

The George R. Ursul Revocable Trust was created by George R. Ursul on December 22, 1997. Attorney John Roche assisted George in preparing the Trust documents. The beneficiaries of the Trust were identified as George’s wife, Ruth Ursul, his daughter, Christina Ursul, and his brother, Robert Ursul. George Ursul died on March 13, 1999. Thereafter, Attorney Roche became a co-trustee of the Trust, a position he held until his death.

In 1999, at the time of his appointment as co-trustee, Attorney Roche worked as a sole practitioner at the law firm of John J. Roche & Associates. As co-trustee with Ruth Ursul, Attorney Roche handled all of the trust matters and assumed responsibility for making all of its investment decisions. Throughout his tenure as co-trustee, Attorney Roche did not provide any of the beneficiaries with accountings of the trust assets, nor did he discuss with them how its assets were being invested.

Attorney Roche joined the law firm of Taylor, Gan-son & Perrin, LLP on February 27, 2001, about two years after he began acting as co-trustee of the Trust. Upon joining the firm, Attorney Roche met with Ruth and Christina Ursul at the firm’s office and told them that he had transferred his law practice there and that he was a partner in the firm. Thereafter, Christina received some communications from Attorney Roche regarding the Trust on the law firm’s letterhead. She received no invoices from the firm. Attorney Roche used his own letterhead from John J. Roche & Associates to invoice his trust fees, not Taylor, Ganson & Perrin letterhead. However, these invoices were simply placed in the Trust files, and were not sent to the beneficiaries.

Unbeknownst to Christina, Attorney Roche was not an actual member of the firm’s partnership, rather, his role was solely that of “contract partner.” Attorney Roche’s contract with Taylor, Ganson & Perrin specified that he would “practice law on a part-time and exclusive basis on behalf of Taylor, Ganson & Perrin in the areas of estates and trusts, estate planning, taxation, probate law, and related or ancillary matters.” The Contract of Partnership also stated:

ii) Fiduciary Fees
JR [Attorney Roche] shall not share any Trustee fees received by him from the 70+ trust accounts presently located at Haldor, Fidelity, the Long, Wol-cott & Coolidge Office, and several banks. All Trustee fees will be kept separate from JR legal fees and shall be the sole property of JR, although such fees may be held in a standard “Agency Account” at TGP for the convenience of JR.
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If JR cultivates any New Trust business which is integrated into TGP’s existing fiduciary services through Mellon Bank, JR shall receive_% of the Net Trustee’s fees . . .

These separate trust accounts included the Ursul Trust.

Beginning in 2002, Christina Ursul began to develop concerns regarding Attorney Roche’s management of the Trust. She discovered that he had closed out a TIAA-CREF account and in doing so, had increased the Trust’s tax liability for 2002. She was also concerned that Attorney Roche had advised her mother, Ruth Ursul, not to sell the family home in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Attorney Roche died in January of2006. Thereafter, Frank S. Yeomans was designated the new co-trustee. Mrs. Ruth Ursul died in September of 2006. No one has been designated to fill her role as co-trustee. The present suit was originally brought on January 25, [86]*862007 in the Middlesex Probate Court, but after an inter-departmental transfer, is now before this Court.

DISCUSSION

Summary judgment is granted where there are no genuine issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Mass.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Community Nat’l Bank v. Dawes, 369 Mass. 550, 553 (1976). The moving party bears the burden of affirmatively demonstrating the absence of a triable issue and that the summary judgment record entitles the moving party to judgment as a matter of law. Pederson v. Time, Inc., 404 Mass. 14, 17 (1989). For issues that the moving party does not have the burden of proof at trial, the absence of a triable issue may be shown by the submission of affirmative evidence that negates an essential element of the opposition’s case, or materials showing “that the party opposing the motion has no reasonable expectation of proving an essential element of that party’s case.” Kourouvacilis v. General Motors Corp., 410 Mass. 706, 716 (1991).

Once the moving party establishes the absence of a triable issue, the party opposing the motion must respond and allege specific facts that would establish the existence of a genuine issue of material fact. Id. Parties may not rely on bare assertions and conclusions to create a dispute necessary to defeat summary judgment. Benson v. Massachusetts Gen. Hosp., 49 Mass.App.Ct. 530, 532 (2000), quoting Polaroid Corp. v. Rollins Envtl Servs., Inc., 416 Mass. 684, 696 (1993). The court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, but does not weigh the evidence, assess credibility, or find facts. Attorney Gen. v. Bailey, 386 Mass. 367, 370-71 (1982).

A.Law of the Case

As a preliminary matter, this Court addresses the plaintiffs’ argument that this Court must deny the present motion because the prior Probate Court judge denied an earlier, similar motion for summary judgment. The plaintiffs argue that the earlier decision represents the “law of the case.” Successor trial judges are not bound by earlier determinations of law. Goulet v. Whitin Mach. Works, Inc., 399 Mass. 547, 553-54 (1987); Winchester Gables, Inc. v. Host Marriott Corp., 70 Mass.App.Ct. 585, 593 (2007). In this case, this Court is confronted with the additional dilemma that the Probate Court’s decision is silent as to any reason for denying the motion.

In any event, this case is presently before the Superior Court because the Probate Court lacked jurisdiction over the legal malpractice claims. See Feener v New England Tel & Tel. Co., 20 Mass.App.Ct. 166, 169 (1985) (finding Probate Court was without jurisdiction to hear negligence claim). This Court respectfully disagrees with the Probate Court that summary judgment must be denied and fashions its own decision applying the law to the undisputed facts.5

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31 Mass. L. Rptr. 85, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yeomans-v-stackpole-masssuperct-2013.