Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia
To help ensure that her grandchildren respected their inheritance, my grandma Katie told us everything about our inheritance, where the property came from, how her father earned it, and what she hope we would do with it. My grandmother let us know that the property was part of a family legacy; she talk to us about how we needed to set up a trust for our children in the way she did to keep the �Wilcots� legacy going. Her words still ring clear in my ear �This property must stay in the Wilcots name, if ever sold, it would be to a Wilcots�. My grandmother thought that by giving the inheritance history and context this would help us, her grandchildren understand that it's not a gift to be frittered away, I took her words to heart.
The trust states that my father, brothers, sister and myself are beneficiaries. My father, the trustee would be entitled to the royalty funds the until his death, then the funds would pass down and be split between her grandchildren.
It should have been difficult to find a willing buyer under those circumstances, law states the deed cannot convey any interest owned by other heirs. In steps NCR LLC, who advised my father to sale the mineral rights of the trust property to himself, then one minute later to them. My father, with the help of NCR found away around my grandmother's trust and now the mineral rights to our property belong to NCR. Keep in mind my father never completed middle school, could not even read and was suffering from dementia from a life of alcoholism.
Now my siblings and I find ourselves fighting for ours and our children's inheritance. We don�t know what the outcome will be, we are people of little means, but we will fight for what my grandmother wanted. Are there Pro-Bono or low income attorneys in Texas for heirs who live in Georgia? Property is located in Texas
2006 - Grandmother's death
2008 - Sale of Grandmothers home, proceeds divided 5 ways, per Trust
2011 - NCR
Advised Floyd to sale property to self, then one min later sale to NCR (conspiracy theory)
2013 - Father's death
Discover Floyd sold mineral rights to NCR, breached his fiduciary duty as trustee
Discover Floyd mortgaged 2410 Virginia Ave, breached his fiduciary duty as trustee
2 Answers from Attorneys
You posted to Georgia lawyers, so Texas lawyers will not likely see it. You need to start contacting lawyers in the area in Texas in which the estate was settled and contact lawyers directly to discuss. You should not expect this is the type of case that lawyers will be interested in taking on a pro bono basis.
You need an attorney in Texas as that is where the property is located if you are challenging conveyance of the mineral rights which have nothing to do with the surface of the land. If you wish to have trustee removed for breach of his fiduciary duty, then you need a trust litigation attorney in the county/state where the trust is located. Read the trust to determine what state law applies. Most trusts usually recite that the trust is to be governed by the law of a particular jurisdiction.
This is not a pro bono case and litigation to remove a trustee is very very expensive depending on the resources available in the trust.
I disagree with your conspiracy theory. It is a conspiracy only when 2 or more people agree to perform an unlawful act. Conveyance of mineral rights is not per se unlawful. Whether it constitutes self-dealing or violates a fiduciary or other duty does not make it unlawful.
But I don't have access to the documents and no lawyer here does. You need to have them reviewed by a trust litigation lawyer to see how best this can be achieved. If you want to reverse the conveyance of mineral rights though, then you will need a Texas real estate lawyer, preferably one very familiar with conveyances of mineral estates, to talk to him about rescission of the deed, especially if you are claiming that the former trustee was mentally incompetent. Perhaps a constructive trust can be imposed or the deed rescinded. I don't understand how, if the land was in trust, that mineral rights can be conveyed. All of the property owners would have to sign. And if the home was sold, then there is no land to convey mineral rights. So something is not right here with your recitation of events.
While your desire to fulfill grandma's wishes is admirable, we have laws precluding dead people from controlling the disposition of land. Frankly, I do not comprehend this at all. You cannot take assets with you when you die. You cannot control the disposition of land when you are dead either and burden your heirs with ownership of land that they may or may not want or be able to afford. at most, we are only stewards of land and resources while we live.
However, the trust documents have to be reviewed to ensure they do not violate the rule against perpetuities.
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