Estate v. Testamentary Trust jurisdiction

In the case of In re Estate of Gaines, 262 S.W.3d 50 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2008, no pet. h.), Testatrix’s will created a testamentary trust.  The county court ordered a person holding property which potentially belonged to the trust to place that property in the registry of the court.  This person appealed claiming that the county court lacked jurisdiction to issue this order because Property Code § 115.001 grants exclusive jurisdiction to the district court for all proceedings concerning trusts.

The appellate court rejected this argument because the case was not one concerning trusts.  Instead, it involved a matter incident to the administration of an estate over which it had jurisdiction under Probate Code § 5.  The property the trial court ordered to be turned over the registry was estate property although the property could later become trust property.

Moral:  A county court has jurisdiction over a decedent’s property which is destined for a testamentary trust even though it would not have jurisdiction over the trust itself.