Summary
The Supreme Court of Nebraska considered whether a revocable trust instrument effectively transferred the decedent's real and personal property to the trust despite the absence of separate deeds or bills of sale. The court held that the trust document satisfied Nebraska's statutory requirements for a deed and sufficiently demonstrated the settlor's intent to transfer both types of property. The court affirmed summary judgment for the beneficiaries and quieted title in the relevant real property.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Moyer's revocable trust agreement was sufficient to convey legal title to the real property listed in its appendix to the cotrustees without a separate deed.
- Whether the trust agreement was sufficient to transfer Moyer's listed personal property to the trust without a separate bill of sale or other formal conveyance.
- Whether summary judgment was properly granted to the defendants and title to the Nebraska real property properly quieted in db Ag Land, LLC.
Holdings
- A trust agreement may operate as a deed of conveyance when it satisfies the statutory requirements for a deed and clearly expresses the settlor's intent to transfer identified real property. Moyer's trust agreement satisfied those requirements and conveyed the Nebraska real property to Moyer and Ron Moyer as cotrustees.
- The trust agreement effectively transferred Moyer's listed personal property to the trust; a separate bill of sale or other formal conveyance was not required where the settlor's intent to transfer the property was clear.
Key quotations
“A conveyance of land may occur in a document that is not formally drafted as a deed.” (at 735)
“Clearly, Moyer's intention was to transfer the property listed on Appendix "A" to the trust corpus, with Moyer and Ron serving as cotrustees.” (at 737)
“We therefore conclude that as with the real property, the trust document effectively transferred title to the personal property.” (at 739)
Factual background
Sharon L. Moyer executed a revocable living trust identifying three parcels of land and various personal property, including bank accounts, household goods, tools, equipment, machinery, and crops, as property being concurrently transferred to the trust. Moyer and Ron Moyer were designated cotrustees, and the trust document was acknowledged and later recorded. After Moyer's death, Ron sold the Nebraska land to John Bradley Moyer, who conveyed it to db Ag Land, LLC, while John Bradley Moyer and Daniel Moyer took possession of personal property. The estate's special administrator argued that the property remained part of Moyer's intestate estate because no separate deed or bill of sale had been executed.
Procedural history
Moyer created a revocable living trust and died intestate. After the special administrator claimed that the trust had not been funded because the real and personal property listed in the trust document had not been separately conveyed, the parties filed competing summary-judgment motions. The district court held that the trust agreement itself effectively conveyed the property to the cotrustees, granted defendants summary judgment, sustained their cross-claim, and quieted title to the Otoe County real estate in db Ag Land. The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed.