Ditta v. Conte, 298 S.W.3d 187 (2009).
The probate court removed Trustee from office. Trustee appealed
claiming that the removal action was barred by the four-year statute of
limitations governing breach of fiduciary duty claims because the
underlying reason for the removal was for an alleged breach of duty. The
Houston First District Court of Appeals agreed that the removal action
was barred because it was brought more than four years after the accrual
of the removal action.
The Texas Supreme Court reversed holding that “no statutory limitations
period restricts a court’s discretion to remove a trustee. A limitations
period, while applicable to suits seeking damages for breach of
fiduciary duty, has no place in suits that seek removal rather than
recovery.” Ditta at 824. The court studied Trust Code § 113.082(a) which
grants the court broad discretion to remove a trustee for certain
enumerated conduct as well for any “other cause” which the court finds
sufficient to justify removal. The court stressed that a decision to
remove “turns on the special status of the trustee as a fiduciary and
the ongoing relationship between trustee and beneficiary, not on any
particular or discrete act of the trustee.” Ditta at 826.
Moral: A person dissatisfied with the conduct of a trustee may bring
suit for removal no matter how long in the past the alleged improper
conduct occurred.