Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Trust sells real estate prior to probate hearing

I certainly hope you folks have a lawyer. This is not something to mess around with, especially in Berkeley where a house could be quite valuable. Under a trust, the beneficiary is entitled to receive the property without probate. However, if the decedent did not have the capacity for knowing what he/she was doing when he/she signed the trust instrument, that is usually the basis for a contest. Often, it results from a caretaker (either family member or outsider) exerting influence on the ill trustor.

The court can set aside the conveyance if the court finds that the trustor was incapable of forming testamentary intent at the time the instrument was signed, or that undue influence was exerted.

The fact that the conveyance was recorded a day of the contest was set for a hearing fails the smell test. Good luck to you.

Re: Trust sells real estate prior to probate hearing

As they say: "something's rotten in Denmark" or words to that effect.

Run, don't walk to your nearest court and scream bloody murder. Or hire a good probate lawyer and fight em. You have to watch out for a legal doctrine known as "bona fide purchaser" who will be entitled to protection under the law, if he had no knowledge of the clouded title and paid fair price for the house.

Was there something recorded in County Registrar's office? such as lis pendence involving the house? if not someone dropped the ball here. If no bona fide purchaser and the transaction is shady, without fair price being paid, then most likely the court will set aside the conveyance.

Good luck.