§ 61-105 — Judicial control of discretionary power

Delaware § 61-105

• Jurisdiction: Delaware
• Title: 12
• Part: Allocation of Principal and Income
• Ch. 61: DELAWARE UNIFORM PRINCIPAL AND INCOME ACT
• Subch.: Definitions and General Principles

Text

(a) In any proceeding that involves a fiduciary’s decision to exercise or refrain from the exercise of a discretionary power conferred upon the fiduciary by this chapter, the fiduciary’s decision shall be changed by the court only if the court determines that the decision was an abuse of the fiduciary’s discretion. A fiduciary’s decision is not an abuse of discretion merely because the court would have exercised the power in a different manner or would not have exercised the power.

(b) The decisions to which subsection (a) of this section applies include:

(1) A decision under § 61-104(a) of this title as to whether and to what extent an amount should be transferred from principal to income or from income to principal.

(2) A decision regarding the factors that are relevant to the trust and its beneficiaries, the extent to which the factors are relevant, and the weight, if any, to be given to those factors, in deciding whether and to what extent to exercise the discretionary power conferred by § 61-104(a) of this title.

(c) If the court determines that a fiduciary has abused the fiduciary’s discretion, the court may place the income and remainder beneficiaries in the positions they would have occupied if the discretion had not been abused, according to the following rules:

(1) To the extent that the abuse of discretion has resulted in no distribution to a beneficiary or in a distribution that is too small, the court shall order the fiduciary to distribute from the trust to the beneficiary an amount that the court determines will restore the beneficiary, in whole or in part, to the beneficiary’s appropriate position.

(2) To the extent that the abuse of discretion has resulted in a distribution to a beneficiary that is too large, the court shall place the beneficiaries, the trust, or both, in whole or in part, in their appropriate positions by ordering the fiduciary to withhold an amount from 1 or more future distributions to the beneficiary who received the distribution that was too large or ordering that beneficiary to return some or all of the distribution to the trust.

(3) To the extent that the court is unable, after applying paragraphs (c)(1) and (2) of this section, to place the beneficiaries, the trust, or both, in the positions they would have occupied if the discretion had not been abused, the court may order the fiduciary to pay an appropriate amount from its own funds to 1 or more of the beneficiaries or the trust or both.

(d) In a proceeding brought by a fiduciary under this section, the court is to determine in accordance with the provisions of this section whether a proposed exercise or nonexercise by the fiduciary of a discretionary power conferred by this chapter will result in an abuse of the fiduciary’s discretion. If the petition or other pleading to the court describes the proposed exercise or nonexercise of the power and contains sufficient information to inform the beneficiaries of the reasons for the proposal, the facts upon which the fiduciary relies, and an explanation of how the income and remainder beneficiaries will be affected by the proposed exercise or nonexercise of the power, a beneficiary who challenges the proposed exercise or nonexercise has the burden of establishing that it will result in an abuse of discretion.

Legislative History

77 Del. Laws, c. 99, § 1