MANUFACTURERS NATIONAL BANK OF DETROIT AND MANUFACTURERS BANK AND TRUST COMPANY OF FLORIDA, APPELLANTS,
v.
MICHELLE MOONS AND MOLLY LEBAN, AS CO-GUARDIANS OF THE PERSON AND PROPERTY OF MARY L. MOONS, INCOMPETENT, APPELLEES

Fla. 4th DCA | 1995-08-23
No. 93-3081
GUNTHER, C.J. and FARMER, J., concur.
659 So. 2d 474 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1995) Caution
Cited by 8 cases

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Synopsis

The Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed a guardianship court order requiring Michigan-based trust trustees to provide accounting information to co-guardians of an incapacitated beneficiary, holding that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over the trustees because they were not properly served with process.


Holding

The court held that the guardianship court did not have personal jurisdiction over the appellants because there was no service of process, no voluntary submission to jurisdiction, and informal notice under probate rules was insufficient to confer jurisdiction over trustees in trust-related proceedings. Trust proceedings are governed by the Rules of Civil Procedure, which require proper service of summons or process.


Headnotes

[1] A court cannot order a party to provide an accounting or other information if it has not acquired personal jurisdiction over that party.

[2] Service of process or voluntary appearance and submission to the court are generally required to acquire personal jurisdiction over a party.

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Key Quotes

“Jurisdiction over persons or entities is ordinarily acquired by service of process on them, or by their voluntary appearance and submission to the court.”

Establishes the fundamental rule for acquiring personal jurisdiction over defendants in legal proceedings.

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Facts & Procedural History

Appellees were co-guardians of Mary L. Moons, an incapacitated person who was a beneficiary of the Moons Trust administered in Michigan by appellants …

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Opinion of the Court
OWEN, WILLIAM C., Jr., Senior Judge.

OWEN, WILLIAM C., Jr., Senior Judge.

Appellants, trustees of certain trusts administered in the State of Michigan, contend that the guardianship court, in ordering them to provide an accounting and other information to the co-guardians of the person and property of an incapacitated beneficiary, erred because the court had not acquired personal jurisdiction over them. We agree.

Appellees, the co-guardians of the person and property of Mary L. Moons, an incapacitated person, had previously filed an independent civil action against the appellants. To obtain funds with which to pay counsel in that suit, appellees filed a petition in the guardianship requesting the court to direct one of the appellants, Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit (“Manufacturers/Detroit”), as trustee of the Mary L. Moons Trust, (“Moons Trust”) to pay $10,000 from the trust assets to the appellees’ counsel as a retainer for services in the separate action. A copy of that petition, together with notice of hearing, was sent by regular mail to Manufacturers/Detroit’s counsel, who appeared at the hearing and advised the court that (1) the court had not acquired jurisdiction over the trustees, and (2) there were no assets in the Moons Trust. The court then entered the order here appealed which held the petition for fees to be moot, apparently because there were no assets in the Mary L. Moons Trust. In addition, and of significance to this appeal, the court ordered the appellants to furnish to appellees certain accounting and other infor mation, relief that appellees neither requested in the petition nor noticed for hearing.

Appellees, acknowledging here that the accounting which the court ordered appellants to furnish had been furnished to appellees before the filing of the petition, now assert that this appeal should be dismissed as moot. This would be a logical disposition of the appeal were it not for the fact that the order, if left undisturbed, would appear to leave appellants subject to the court’s jurisdiction without any proper basis.

Jurisdiction over persons or entities is ordinarily acquired by service of process on them, or by their voluntary appearance and submission to the court. Grand Couloir Corp. v. Consolidated Bank, 596 So. 2d 697 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992); McKelvey v. McKelvey, 323 So. 2d 651 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976). There was no service of process on appellants. Neither is there anything in the record to show that appellants voluntarily submitted to the jurisdiction of the court. Finally, no contention is made that either appellant qualified as an interested person in the guardianship estate under the statutory definition of “interested person.” § 731.201(21), Fla.Stat. Since the only service on appellants was by informal notice under Florida Probate Rule 5.041, the issue is whether that was sufficient in a guardianship proceeding to give the court jurisdiction over a trustee of a trust merely because the ward is a beneficiary of the trust.

We answer that question in the negative on the authority of In re Estate of Black, 528 So. 2d 1316 (Fla. 2d DCA 1988), which held that the “formal notice” used to obtain service in probate and in guardianship matters was not sufficient in trust related proceedings to confer on the court jurisdiction over the trustee; rather, pursuant to section 737.201, Florida Statutes, proceedings related to trusts were governed by the Rules of Civil Procedure. The latter, of course, prescribe summons or other process issued by or under authority of the court and served as provided by law.

Because the court had not acquired personal jurisdiction over the appellants, we reverse that part of the order appealed which ordered the appellants to furnish to appellees certain accounting and other information. This disposition renders moot the remaining issue.

Reversed, in part, and remanded.

GUNTHER, C.J. and FARMER, J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Fisher v. State, 840 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 5th DCA 2003)
    …for a restitution order in her daughter’s delinquency case. However, a party can make a voluntary appearance and submit to the jurisdiction of a court even where the party is not served with process. Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit v. Moons, 659 So. 2d 474 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995); McKelvey v. McKelvey, 323 So. 2d 651 (Fla. 3d DCA 1976); § 985.219(1), Fla. Stat. Fisher appeared numerous times before the court and even challenged the merits of the restitution order. Thus she may have submitted herself to th…
  • Beekhuis v. Morris, 89 So. 3d 1114 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012)
    …Overstreet, 982 So. 2d 11, 14 (Fla. 5th DCA 2008) (explaining that appearing before the probate court in one capacity does not subject that party in a separate capacity to the jurisdiction of the court); see also Mfrs. Nat. Bank of Detroit v. Moons, 659 So. 2d 474, 475 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995) (holding that the probate court did not have jurisdiction over the trustees because there was no service of process on trustees and the trustees did not voluntarily submit to the jurisdiction of the court).1 We conclude tha…
  • Baker v. Petway, 740 So. 2d 1235 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999)
    …erships named in the amended complaint. “Jurisdiction over persons or entities is ordinarily acquired by service of process on them, or by their voluntary appearance and submission to the court.” See Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit v. Moons, 659 So. 2d 474, 475 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995). Section 48.061, Florida Statutes, governing service on partnerships and limited partnerships, provides in pertinent part: (2) Process against a domestic limited partnership may be served on any general partner or on the ag…

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