Purcella v. Purcella

Burt Purcella established a trust into which he transferred his assets, including fifty percent ownership in a business. Purcella named his wife and children as successor trustees. Upon Purcella's death, the successor trustees were to divide the remaining trust assets between two trusts, the family trust and the marital trust. After Purcella's death, Children filed an action against Wife, claiming she breached her fiduciary obligations as trustee by depositing funds the marital trust received from the business into her personal account. The district court entered summary judgment enjoining Wife from depositing the funds into her personal account and finding the parties had agreed that 87.05% of all income received from the business would be allocated to the marital trust and distributed to Wife. The Supreme Court reversed the district court's ruling that Wife was entitled to all income the marital trust received from the business, holding that Wife was entitled to payment of income the marital trust received from the business less any expenses incurred in administering the marital trust.