GEORGIA S. MANN, APPELLANT,
v.
A. HAMILTON COOKE, ESQUIRE; COOKE, HAND, CARITHERS, SHOWALTER & MERCIER, PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION, NOW KNOWN AS HAND, CARITHERS, SHOWALTER & MERCIER, P.A., APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 1993-09-17
No. 92-963
WOLF and MICKLE, JJ., concur.
624 So. 2d 785 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1993) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

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Synopsis

Georgia Mann appeals a summary judgment dismissing her legal malpractice action against attorney A. Hamilton Cooke, who drafted a revocable trust agreement for her deceased husband. Mann, as an intended third-party beneficiary of the trust, claimed Cooke negligently drafted the trust in a manner that frustrated her husband's intent and diminished her legacy. The court affirmed the summary judgment, holding that the trust agreement was clear and unambiguous and contained no defect.


Holding

The court affirmed summary judgment for Cooke and the law firm. Article V of the trust agreement is clear and unambiguous in prohibiting an attorney-in-fact from exercising rights reserved to the grantor, and there is no conflict between Article V and Article VI because trustees cannot delegate discretionary powers. The trust unambiguously provided that only Harry C. Mann, as grantor/trustee, could withdraw funds. Mann's malpractice claim fails because it rests on the assertion that she should have been given withdrawal rights independent of the trust agreement's clear express terms.


Headnotes

[1] A trust agreement unambiguously prohibiting an attorney-in-fact from exercising rights reserved to the grantor will be enforced as written.

[2] A durable power of attorney does not conflict with a trust agreement by granting general powers inconsistent with specific restrictions expressed in the trust agreement.

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Key Quotes

“[QUOTE REDACTED — failed verbatim audit (paraphrase, not verbatim). See original_text for the text as originally displayed.]”

Establishes the clear and unambiguous language of the trust prohibiting an attorney-in-fact from exercising withdrawal rights reserved to the grantor.

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Facts & Procedural History

Harry C. Mann retained attorney Cooke in 1985 to prepare a will, revocable trust agreement, durable power of attorney, and living will. The amended tr…

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Opinion of the Court
SMITH, Judge.

SMITH, Judge.

Georgia S. Mann appeals an adverse final summary judgment entered in her malpractice action against attorney A. Hamilton Cooke, and the law firm in which he practiced at the time he drew up a will and amended revocable trust agreement for her now deceased husband, Harry C. Mann. We affirm.

Mann alleges that she was a third party beneficiary of the amended revocable trust and as such, she may bring a malpractice action against appellees, even absent direct contractual privity.1 She charges that Cooke, in drafting the amended trust agreement, breached his duty to her, as an intended third party beneficiary of the amended trust agreement, by drafting the agreement in a manner which frustrated the intent of her husband and directly resulted in diminishment of her legacy under the agreement.

The essential facts are not in dispute. In 1985, Harry C. Mann retained Cooke and the law firm and requested Cooke to prepare for him a will and a revocable trust, which was later amended. Mann was named as trustee, and a Jacksonville bank was successor trustee. Cooke prepared these instruments as well as a durable family power of attorney and a “living will.” As found by the trial court:

The amended trust agreement clearly and unambiguously specifies the intent of the grantor/testator to the extent relevant to plaintiffs claims: “[T]o provide for the health, happiness,, general welfare, maintenance, comfort and support of Grantor and his wife, GEORGIA S. MANN, during their lives and of Grantor’s wife after Grantor’s death, all in the manner hereinafter provided.”

Article V of the amended trust agreement reserved to the grantor certain rights and powers “to be exercised at any time and from time to time in writing signed and acknowledged by Grantor and effective when delivered to the Trustee....” Those rights and powers included “[flrom time to time to withdraw from the operation of this trust any part or all of the Trust Estate.” The last paragraph of Article V provided: “Neither a conservator, attorney in fact, nor a guardian of the Grantor, nor any person other than Grant-or may exercise any of the rights reserved to Grantor by the provisions of this Article.”

Article VI of the amended trust agreement provided that, during the lifetime of the grantor, “the Trustee shall pay over to or apply for the benefit of the Grantor and the Grantor’s wife, GEORGIA S. MANN, whatever part or parts or all of the income and of the principal of the trust as Grantor shall direct from time to time in writing, or, in the absence of a demand, as the Trustee, in the Trustee’s absolute discretion, deems necessary or desirable to provide for the general welfare, health, happiness, and comfortable maintenance and support of the Grantor and Grantor’s wife.”

The durable power of attorney granted Georgia Mann, and one of her husband’s daughters, the power to make withdrawals from savings accounts and “do anything regarding my estate, property and affairs that I could do myself.”

From May 19, 1987 until June 16, 1987, while Harry C. Mann was hospitalized, Georgia Mann, accompanied by an attorney not associated with appellees, utilized the durable family power of attorney prepared by Cooke to withdraw in excess of $400,000 from a number of trust accounts and an account maintained in the name of Harry C. Mann, individually. The funds were transferred to her individual name. On June 29, 1987, Mann died.

After Mann’s, death, controversy arose over the propriety of the withdrawals made by Georgia Mann. She brought an action for declaratory judgment to have the court determine the legality of her use of the durable family power of attorney to withdraw trust funds and put them to her own personal use. The action for declaratory judgment was ultimately settled. Thereafter, she filed the instant action claiming that she was damaged by appellees’ negligence because the manner in which the various documents were drawn resulted in a confusing legal situation and subsequent litigation causing her to incur legal fees and suffer other damages.

Georgia Mann argued below, and in this court, that ambiguities within the amended trust agreement resulted in frustration of Harry C. Mann’s intent as reflected by the existence of the durable family power of attorney and as expressed in certain conversations he allegedly had with her. She alleges that her husband told her that she should use the durable family power of attorney to withdraw trust assets. In that vein, she contends that the existence of the durable family power of attorney renders ambiguous the language in Article V of the amended trust agreement which prohibits an attorney-in-fact from exercising any of the rights reserved to the grantor. We find appellant’s arguments unpersuasive. It is the view of this court, as it was the view of the trial court below, that Article V is clear and unambiguous in prohibiting an attorney-in-fact from exercising rights reserved to the grantor. We discern no defect in the trust agreement and no evidence demonstrating frustration of the settlor’s intent. The trust unambiguously provides that the holder of a durable power of attorney cannot withdraw trust funds. The durable power of attorney does not conflict with the amended trust agreement by granting general powers inconsistent with specific restrictions expressed in the trust agreement.

Next, Georgia Mann contends that there is an ambiguity between Article V and Article VI of the amended trust agreement because Article VI does not contain a prohibition that an attorney-in-fact may not exercise rights reserved to the trustee. Therefore, she argues, the trust agreement is ambiguous as to whether she had the right, using the durable power of attorney, to exercise the trustee’s discretion to pay to herself principal of the trust. Again, like the trial court, we find no ambiguity because, by law, a trustee may not delegate discretionary powers. Thomas v. Carlton, 106 Fla. 648, 143 So. 780, 785 (1932).

The trust agreement does not permit the grantor/trustee (Harry C. Mann) to delegate his rights under the trust agreement — particularly his right to withdraw trust assets — to Georgia Mann. Under the trust, only Harry C. Mann, as grantor/trustee, was permitted to -withdraw the funds from the trust. Reduced to its essentials, appellant’s claim of malpractice rests upon the contention that she should have been given the right of withdrawal of trust assets independent of the specific provisions of the trust agreement itself, which clearly and unambiguously expressed the intent of Harry G. Mann at the time of its execution. That Harry G. Mann might have at a later time expressed or acted upon a contrary intention gives no cause for a claim of legal malpractice against his attorney.

AFFIRMED.

WOLF and MICKLE, JJ., concur. . While there was some contention by appellees that the third party intended beneficiary exception to the privity rule for bringing legal malpractice actions applied only to intended third party beneficiaries of testamentary instruments, the exception is not so limited. Greenberg v. Mahoney Adams & Criser, 614 So. 2d 604 (Fla. 1st DCA), pet. for rev. denied, 624 So. 2d 267 (Fla.1993) (third party intended beneficiary exception to the privity rule for bringing legal malpractice action is not limited to will drafting).


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Citator

Cited By

  • Morgan Stanley DW Inc. v. Halliday, 873 So. 2d 400 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004)
    …if the regular course of business in administering the trust does not require that the trustee part with the custody of the funds ... and a loss [is] thereby eventually sustained, the trustee will be liable to make such loss good.”); Mann v. Cooke, 624 So. 2d 785 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993) (by law trustee may not delegate discretionary trust powers). Consequently, in hiring Morgan Stanley to make the daily investment decisions for the Trust assets, the law of agency did not make their Trust beneficiary bound by a…
  • Gurfinkel v. Josi, 972 So. 2d 927 (Fla. 3d DCA 2007)
    …ther person” from exercising these rights during the lifetime of the grantor. (Emphasis added.) The language of the reservation and prohibition in this case are very similar to those considered by the First District Court of Appeal in Mann v. Cooke, 624 So. 2d 785, 786-87 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993). Although the prohibition in Mann also included an “attorney-in-fact” among those prohibited from exercising the rights of the grantor during his lifetime,1 we find that to be a distinction without a difference. As in Man…

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