Buck v. Hales
| Decision Date | 23 June 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 75-1402,75-1402 |
| Citation | 536 F.2d 1330 |
| Parties | Allen Hales BUCK, Jr., and Damien Buck, minors, acting by and through their mother and legal guardian, Patricia C. Buck, Appellants, v. W. T. HALES, Jr., et al., Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Delmer L. Stagner, Halley, Spradling, Stagner & Alpern, Oklahoma City, Okl., for appellants.
Jerry L. Hemry, Oklahoma City, Okl. (Kenneth M. Hemry, and Hemry & Hemry, Oklahoma City, Okl., of counsel, with him on the brief), for W. T. Hales, Jr. and Thelma Hales, as Trustee and as Executrix of the Estate of George A. Hales, appellees.
William G. Paul, Crowe, Dunlevy, Thweatt, Swinford, Johnson & Burdick Oklahoma City, Okl. (John A. Green, Green & Brown, Inc., and Allen D. Evans and Robert A. Reece, Oklahoma City, Okl., with him on the brief), for Viva Oneta Peterson, individually and as Trustee for W. F. Peterson, Jr., and The Liberty National Bank and Trust Co. of Oklahoma City, as Trustee for W. F. Peterson, Jr., appellees.
Michael Paul Kirschner, Oklahoma City, Okl. (Sally Mock, and Hastie, Kirschner & Kinslow, Oklahoma City, Okl., of counsel, with him on the brief), for The First National Bank and Trust Co. of Oklahoma City, appellee.
Francis S. Irvine, Kerr, Davis, Irvine, Burbage & Green, Oklahoma City, Okl., for Ward Edinger, appellee.
Before HILL, SETH and DOYLE, Circuit Judges.
Appellants are two great grandchildren of W. T. Hales who assert they are discretionary income beneficiaries and are residual beneficiaries of a trust created by the will of W. T. Hales. Appellees are the cotrustees of the trust, the individual beneficiaries of the trust, and trustees of the estates of deceased beneficiaries. Appellants sought (1) a judgment against the beneficiaries for income payments made to them which appellants allege were not made in accordance with the terms of the will, and to surcharge the cotrustees for wrongfully making such payments; (2) the imposition of a constructive trust on certain mineral interests now owned by the beneficiaries which were received by them as distributions from the trust, and an accounting for income received from such mineral interests, and a judgment against the cotrustees for the amount of such income not accounted for and paid by the beneficiaries; and (3) a forfeiture of certain rights under the trust by the beneficiaries.
The trial court dismissed the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction or, in the alternative, abstained from exercising jurisdiction, deferring to the state courts of Oklahoma for resolution of the questions presented.
W. T. Hales died testate in 1938. His estate was probated in the county court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. The will created a trust which provided for yearly distributions of income and for partial distribution of corpus to his then living children at intervals following his death. A final distribution of corpus was to be made upon the death of the survivor of his children. The state court has since 1943 construed various terms of the trust in an action filed by the cotrustees, and directed them to follow a certain course of action with respect to the trust res. It has been necessary in the ensuing years for the cotrustees to obtain further directions from the state court concerning administration of the trust estate, and there have been occasional disputes among the beneficiaries and between the cotrustees and the beneficiaries concerning administration of the trust and the exercise of discretion by the cotrustees. Resolving one such dispute in 1959, the state court specifically stated that it "retains and continues jurisdiction . . . in the matter of orders, instructions, determinations and interpretations of the said testamentary trust. . . ." The most recent judgment of the state court construing the trust was entered on March 26, 1975.
In Swanson v. Bates, 170 F.2d 648 (10th Cir.), this court held that once the jurisdiction of a state court over the the administration of a trust has attached, such jurisdiction is exclusive. There, a beneficiary to a testamentary trust filed suit in federal court for removal of a trustee, for an accounting, and for construction of the...
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MATTER OF TRUST CREATED BY HILL ON DEC. 31, 1917
...originally in the federal court when state courts had previously exercised continuing jurisdiction over the trust. Buck v. Hales, 536 F.2d 1330, 1331-32 (10th Cir.1976); cf. Wilcoxson v. Security Bank & Trust Co., 516 F.Supp. 3, 4 (W.D. Okla.1980) (federal in rem trust jurisdiction found wh......
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Cassity v. Pitts
...powers, duties and liabilities of the trustees is either in rem or quasi in rem. Okla.Stat. tit. 60 § 175.23(A) (1971); Buck v. Hales, 536 F.2d 1330, 1332 (10th Cir.1976). When the same parties are involved in litigation that is in rem or quasi in rem, the court where the last suit was file......