Opinion ID: 1161211
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Chargeability of Defense Expenditures Against Contestants' Shares of Trust

Text: (14) The trial court exceeded its authority in ordering that the extraordinary compensation of the executor and its attorneys for defending the contests be charged against contestants' shares of the trust. The residue of the estate was distributed in trust for four beneficiaries of whom only three filed the present contests. Probate Code section 750 provides in effect that in the absence of contrary provision in the will debts and expenses of administration must be paid from the estate in the following order: (1) that portion of the estate not disposed of by the will, (2) property given to residuary legatees and devisees, (3) all other property devised and bequeathed other than by specific devise or legacy, and (4) specific devises and legacies. There being no property of the estate passing by intestacy, the expenses of administration, including the extraordinary compensation in question, were chargeable generally against all the property otherwise distributable to the residuary trust without differentiation as to the burden to be borne by any beneficiary's particular interest. (See Estate of Stauffer (1959) 53 Cal.2d 124, 129-131 [346 P.2d 748].) The executor seeks to sustain the charging of extraordinary compensation against contestants' trust shares by arguing that [i]t would have been manifestly unfair for a noncontesting beneficiary to participate in the burden of that expense incurred by the contesting beneficiaries, and that [t]he allocation of fees and costs is fully supported by the broad equitable discretion of the trial Court in assessing such fees and costs to the respective parties. The trial court had discretion to charge contestants with costs of suit (§ 1232) and acted within this authority in awarding such costs against contestants in the amount of $774.47. However, the court's authority to award costs did not include power to impose upon contestants the entire burden of the extraordinary compensation of the executor and its attorneys for conducting the executor's defense against the contests. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1021; Estate of Marre, supra, 18 Cal.2d at p. 191; Estate of Harvey (1964) 224 Cal. App.2d 555, 561 [36 Cal. Rptr. 788]; Estate of Bevelle (1947) 81 Cal. App.2d 720 [185 P.2d 90].) A contrary rule would unduly deter contestants such as these from questioning the stewardship of executors and administrators through proceedings brought in good faith.