Lee v. Lee, 528 S.W.3d 201 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2017, pet. denied).
Beneficiaries sued in a statutory probate court to
remove Trustee. Trustee claims that the court lacked jurisdiction and
that suit should have been brought in district court under Trust Code
§ 115.001. Trustee admitted that the statutory probate court has
concurrent jurisdiction over testamentary trusts but asserted that this
jurisdiction is restricted to when a probate proceeding is actually
pending in the statutory probate court.
The appellate disagreed with Trustee. The court
determined that the jurisdiction of statutory probate courts is
independent of its probate jurisdiction. “[T]he absence of a pending
probate proceeding does not deprive a statutory probate court of its
independent jurisdiction over testamentary-trust actions.” Lee at
213. The court also recognized that the statutory probate court also has
jurisdiction over inter vivos trusts as provided in Estates Code
§ 32.006.
Moral: A statutory probate court has
concurrent jurisdiction with the district court over both inter vivos
and testamentary trusts irrespective of whether any probate matter
regarding the trust is pending in the statutory probate court.