Estate Planning

Claim of Devastavit against an Estate Trustee

By Hull & Hull LLP

A claim of devastavit may be made against an estate trustee where mismanagement of estate assets is suspected. Black’s Law Dictionary (seventh edition) provides the following definition for devastavit:

A personal representative’s failure to administer a decedent’s estate promptly and properly, especially by spending extravagantly or misapplying assets. A personal representative who commits waste in this way becomes personally liable to those having claims on the assets, such as creditors and beneficiaries.

In the case of Commander Leasing Corp. v. Aiyede, 16 E.T.R. 183 (1984), an estate trustee distributed an estate even though there was an outstanding claim by a company, Commander Leasing, as a creditor of the estate. The estate trustee did not plead that there were no (“plene administravit”) or insufficient (“plene administravit praetor”) assets in the estate to satisfy the company’s claim. Instead, she stated at her discovery that all of the assets had been distributed.

The effect of the estate trustee’s failure to plead plene administravit or plene administravit praeter was that she must be taken to have admitted that there were assets to satisfy the judgment. The Court ultimately held that in distributing the estate, the estate trustee acted in clear disregard of the company's outstanding claim as a creditor. Her conduct constituted a devastavit for which she was personally liable to the company creditor. 

Have a great day!

Bianca La Neve

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on February 12, 2009 (boomark / email).