Master Recommends that Trust Be Distributed After an Accounting

Charles F. Alexander v. Edwin J. Alexander, Edward L. Alexander, and William F. Alexander, C.A. No. 12587-MA (April 19, 2017)

Along with his three brothers, the Petitioner is one of four beneficiaries and Co-Trustees of a revocable trust (the “Trust”). According to the petition, Petitioner’s brothers have failed to keep him informed as to the Trust’s accounting and activity since early 2012, and have refused him access to materials that would enable Petitioner to value the Trust. Petitioner sought an accounting of all Trust activity from January 1, 2012 to the present, an immediate distribution of the Trust res, and an award of attorney’s fees and costs.

The Master noted that per the Trust instrument, the Trust was to be distributed in equal shares to grantors’ surviving children following the grantors’ death. Five years had passed since the death of the last surviving grantor. The Master found that “[f]ive years is more than enough time to wind up a trust.”

Ruling on a motion for judgment on the pleadings, the Master recommended that the Court issue an order requiring an accounting of the assets of the Trust since January 1, 2012 and, after the accounting, ordering distribution of the Trust assets in equal shares to the parties. And citing 12 Del. C. § 3584 and IMO Trust for Grandchildren of Gore, 2013 WL 771900, at *3 (Del. Ch. Feb. 27, 2013), the Master also recommended that the Court award Petitioner’s reasonable attorneys’ fees be paid from the Trust because his litigation conferred a benefit to the Trust by breaking the apparent deadlock among the Co-Trustees which was impeding the proper administration of the Trust and its timely termination.