U.S. Bank v. TFHSP LLC Series 6481, 487 S.W.3d 715 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2016, no pet.).

Trusts

Jurisdiction

 

Beneficiary sued Trustee, a foreign corporation, and received a no-answer default judgment. Trustee appealed. The appellate court examined the pleadings and determined that the trial court lacked personal jurisdiction over Trustee because Beneficiary’s service of process was invalid.

 

The court focused on Estates Code §§ 505.001-.006 which governs service of process on foreign corporate fiduciaries. Beneficiary failed to assert jurisdictional facts such as providing the proper Estates Code section under which service of process should be made and alleging that Trustee was a foreign corporate fiduciary. The court explained that jurisdictional facts cannot be inferred from Trustee’s name as found in the petition.

 

A concurring opinion points out that the Beneficiary’s failure to reference the proper section of the Estates Code appeared to be a mere typographical error.

 

Moral:  When suing a foreign corporate fiduciary, the plaintiff must be certain to recite the applicable jurisdictional facts and carefully proofread citations to the Estates Code.

 

 



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