In re The Charles M. Bair Family Trust

Summary

The Supreme Court of Montana reviewed disputes concerning the Charles M. Bair Family Trust, including whether the trust agreement required creation of the Charles M. Bair Family Museum, whether the Board of Advisors breached its fiduciary duties, and whether the Friends of the Bair had standing to intervene. The court concluded that the trust agreement clearly directed the Board to establish the Museum, rejecting the lower court's characterization of that provision as precatory. The opinion states that the judgment was reversed.

Holdings

1. The trust agreement mandated creation of the Charles M. Bair Family Museum and made the Museum the primary purpose of the trust; the language was not merely precatory.
2. The Board breached its duties under the trust agreement and Montana law by failing to use the principal and income necessary to make the Museum museum-ready, including by failing to provide adequate fire protection, air-handling and environmental controls, security, and additional structures.
3. The Board breached its duty to give the Museum first priority on distributed trust income because it failed to fund the Museum adequately while continuing to make charitable grants.
4. The Board breached its fiduciary duties by closing the Museum without determining, under the trust agreement's required standard, that it had ceased to serve its scholarly, educational, and historical purposes to the extent that continued operation was inadvisable.
5. The Court declined to decide whether Friends of the Bair had standing because the Attorney General was a proper party and had appealed, making resolution of Friends' standing an advisory and non-effective exercise.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trust agreement required the Board to establish the Charles M. Bair Family Museum and made the Museum the trust's primary purpose.
2. Whether the Board breached its fiduciary duties and the trust agreement by inadequately funding and maintaining the Museum, failing to give it first priority on distributed income, and closing it without applying the contractual standard.
3. Whether Friends of the Bair had standing to intervene to enforce the charitable trust.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded