Source: https://mattweidnerlaw.com/pending-case-doug-fink-v-steven-meyer-posternak-blankstein-shows-annual-trust-accounting-matters/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 09:12:39+00:00

Document:
The Pending Case Doug Fink v. Steven Meyer, Posternak Blankstein Shows Why Annual Trust Accounting Matters!
The trustees never complied with § 736.0813, Fla. Stat. and the “accountings” that have been provided do not comply with § 736.08135, Fla. Stat.
Plaintiffs re-allege Paragraphs 1-83 as if fully stated herein.
A fiduciary relationship exists between Plaintiffs and Meyer, Michael Fink, and Labret because Meyer, Michael Fink, and Labret act as co-trustees of trusts of which Plaintiffs are the only remaining qualified beneficiaries and because Michael Fink acted as the personal representative of Norman Fink’s Estate of which Plaintiffs are the heirs.
Meyer, Michael Fink, and Labret breached the fiduciary duties they owed to Plaintiff.
But for Meyer’s, Michael Fink’s, and Labret’s breaches, Plaintiff has been damaged.
That Plaintiffs are entitled to an award of those damages along with an award of attorney’s fees and costs.
This is an action to remove Meyer, Michael Fink, and Labret as trustees of the 1999 Trust and the 2001 Trust pursuant to § 736.0706, Stat. and to appoint a successor trustee or trustees pursuant to § 736.0704, Fla. Stat.
Plaintiffs are the only remaining qualified beneficiaries under the trusts.
Payment of an inordinate amount of attorney’s fees to Meyer, Meyer’s law firm, and other law firms for attorney “work” which never should have been done in the first place.
There is also a lack of cooperation between the co-trustees.
Due to Meyer’s, Michael Fink’s, and Labret’s unfitness, unwillingness, or persistent failure to administer the 1999 Trust and the 2001 Trust, removal of all three of them best serves the interests of all beneficiaries.
So the issue is…if the court sustains the counts for removal and breach of fiduciary duty, how do plaintiffs measure damages if the removed trustees are not required to account?
The appellate court opinion in Corya v. Sanders, 155 So. 3d 1279 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015) construes Florida statutes in a manner that is contrary to the intended operation of those statutes by improperly limiting a trustee’s duty to render trust accountings. First, the court construed section 736.08135 as limiting the beginning period for which a trustee of an irrevocable trust is statutorily required to render a trust accounting to no earlier than January 1, 2003. Second, the court construed Florida law as barring a beneficiary of an irrevocable trust who has actual knowledge of the existence of the trust and that he or she has not received a trust accounting from the trustee from seeking a trust accounting for any period more than four years prior to the filing of the action.

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