Court Refused to Grant Diversity Jurisdiction to Beneficiaries

Duringthe probate process of a trust, it is common for beneficiaries to be in morethan one jurisdiction. Sometimes that means that the fiduciary of the estate isin a separate state than the beneficiary. In this recent case, the personalrepresentative was from Texas but was handling a Florida estate. Following adispute, two of the beneficiaries sued the personal representative. One ofthe beneficiaries was from Florida and the other was a citizen of Colorado. Thebeneficiaries moved to have the case moved to federal court on the basis ofdiversity jurisdiction.

In  Levya v. Daniels, 2013 WL 5313600 (11th Cir. 2013), the courtheld that because the personal representative was sued in his capacity as afiduciary he was a Florida citizen for legal issues arising out of the Floridaestate he was managing. As a result, the case was dismissed for lack ofdiversity jurisdiction. 

See Jenna G. Rubin, Levya v. Daniels , Rubin on Probate,  Sep. 26, 2013.

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.