ANJAL CASTELLANO, ETC., APPELLANT,
v.
ANGELA CASTELLANO COSGROVE ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. | 1973-07-18
No. 41961
ROBERTS, ERVIN, ADKINS, BOYD, McCAIN and DEKLE, JJ., concur.
280 So. 2d 676 Florida Supreme Court (1973) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

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Synopsis

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed that Chapter 69-192, which imposed will-execution formalities on trusts, did not apply to savings and bank account trusts unrelated to real estate interests, and that a pre-effective-date trust agreement could not be retroactively impaired. The court upheld the daughter's rights to multiple trust accounts established by her father.


Holding

The court held that the pre-effective-date trust agreement could not be impaired under the Contract Clause of either the Federal or Florida Constitution, and that Chapter 69-192 did not apply to savings and bank account trusts established under the Banking Code and Savings Association Act, as the statute governed only trusts relating to interests in real estate under Chapter 689.


Headnotes

[1] A law requiring specific formalities for the execution of trust instruments does not apply to trusts executed prior to the law's effective date if such application would…

[2] A statute governing conveyances of land and declarations of trust does not apply to savings and bank account trusts unrelated to interests in real estate.

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Key Quotes

“It held that the initial trust agreement executed in February, 1969, was a contract in being which could not be impaired under either the Federal or the Florida Constitution.”

Establishes that pre-effective-date contracts are protected from retroactive statutory application.

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Facts & Procedural History

Nicholas Castellano created a savings account trust agreement in January 1968 naming his daughter Angela as beneficiary, receiving a certificate in th…

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Opinion of the Court
CARLTON, Chief Justice.

CARLTON, Chief Justice.

This is a direct appeal from a final judgment of the Circuit Court, Broward County, holding that: 1) Chapter 69-192, Laws of Florida, was unconstitutional as applied to a certain inter vivos trust agreement executed prior to the law’s effective date; 2) Chapter 69-192 had no application to savings and bank account trusts unrelated to interests in real estate. Article V, § 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution, F.S.A. We affirm.

In January, 1968, Nicholas Castellano executed a “savings account” discretionary revocable trust agreement with the Home Federal Savings and Loan Association in behalf of his daughter, Angela. The following month, the Home Federal issued Nicholas a certificate of savings in the name of “Nicholas Castellano as trustee for Angela Castellano”. Thereafter, on July 1, 1969, Chapter 69-192 became effective ; it provided in part:

“Section 1. . (2) When the set-tlor is made sole trustee the trust instrument shall be executed in accordance with the formalities for the execution of wills required at the time of execution of the trust instrument in the jurisdiction where the trust instrument is executed.
“Section 2. This act shall become effective on July 1, 1969 and shall be applicable to trusts executed before or after said date by persons who are living on or after said date.”

After July 1, 1969, Nicholas executed five additional trust agreements with various savings associations and a bank, all in Angela’s behalf. In September, 1969, he died intestate, leaving as survivors Angela and appellant, his widow.

The widow became administratrix. In a declaratory judgment proceeding, she contested the status of all of the trust accounts. Her theory was that Section 2 of Chapter 69-192 applied; that, and this is conceded by appellees, none of the trust instruments were executed by Nicholas in the presence of two verifying witnesses; that this failure to abide by the “formalities for the execution of wills” nullified the instruments and accordingly the accounts reverted to his estate. The widow further contended that the trusts were invalid testamentary dispositions as well as attempts to defeat her widow’s share.

Daughter Angela contended that she had exclusive rights to the trust accounts. Her arguments are reflected in the ultimate holding of the Circuit Court. It held that the initial trust agreement executed in February, 1969, was a contract in being which could not be impaired under either the Federal or the Florida Constitution. The Court also held that the subsequent trust agreements executed after the effective date of Chapter 69-192 were unaffected by the act because it did not apply to savings and bank account trusts unrelated to interests in real estate. These subsequent accounts were established under authority of Florida Statutes Chapter 659 (Banking Code) and Chapter 665 (Savings Association Act).1

*678We are in agreement with the Circuit Court’s judgment and its distinction between trust accounts established under Chapters 66S and 659 and those relating to interests in real estate governed by Chapter 69-192 (an addition to Florida Statutes Chapter 689, entitled “Conveyances of Land and Declarations of Trust.”).2 Moreover, we find no evidence in the record to support the contention that the trust accounts were illusory and an attempt to defraud the widow.

The judgment under appeal is hereby affirmed.

It is so ordered.

ROBERTS, ERVIN, ADKINS, BOYD, McCAIN and DEKLE, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Zuckerman v. Alter, 615 So. 2d 661 (Fla. 1993)
    …mendment to section 689.075 further reflects the legislature’s intent that one-party trusts created in Florida be executed with the formalities of a will. The 1975 amendment was in direct response to this Court’s decision in Castellano v. Cos-grove, 280 So. 2d 676 (Fla.1973), which held that section 689.075 was intended to apply only to real property and not personally and that the statute’s retroactive application was an unconstitutional impairment of contract. Chapter 75-74, Laws of Florida, made it clear t…
  • Corya v. Sanders, 155 So. 3d 1279 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015)
    …impair the contractual duty (or lack of duty) to account in existing trust documents. Art. I, 10, Fla. Const. (“No bill of attainder, ex post facto law or law impairing the obligation of contracts shall be passed.”); see also Castellano v. Cosgrove, 280 So. 2d 676 (Fla.1973); Lawnwood Med. Ctr., Inc. v. Seeger, 959 So. 2d 1222, 1224 (Fla. 1st DCA 2007) (explaining that an impairment occurs “when a contract is made worse or is diminished in quantity, value, excellence or strength”). Finally, if the trustee is…
  • Alter v. Zuckerman, 585 So. 2d 303 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991)
    …ut the possibility of invalidating the testamentary portions of some grantor trusts which would otherwise have been upheld under the first Restatement and Hanson v. Denekla tests. One such case, based on the 1969 statute, was Castellano v. Cosgrove, 280 So. 2d 676 (Fla.1973), to be discussed below. In 1971 the statute was amended by deleting the requirement for compliance with the statute of wills where the settlor serves as sole trustee, and substituting the following: Section 1. Paragraph (g) of subsectio…
    1 / 2

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