Christal v. Trescony

Citations

• 119 Cal. 568
• 51 P. 951
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 672

Syllabus

<p>Estates op Deceased Persons—Trusts under Will—Conclusiveness of Decree of Distribution—Collateral Attack—Validity of Trusts—Settlement of Accounts of Trustees.—A decree of distribution.to trustees-named in the will is a judicial construction of the will, and is a determination of the rights of all parties interested in the estate, and is a measure of their rights, and the will can no longer be considered except upon a direct appeal from the decree, and, though erroneous, if it is unappealed from, the decree is conclusive upon all persons interested in the estate; and minor beneficiaries of the trust, whose rights were limited by the decree to one-third of the estate, the other two-thirds having been distributed to other beneficiaries under trusts, the validity of which was determined by the decree of distribution, cannot attack such other trusts collaterally upon a settlement of the accounts of the trustees, upon the ground that they were void as being in restraint of alienation, and that the trustees should account for the whole estate for the benefit of the minors.</p> <p>Id .—Partition of Land Held in Trust—Conclusiveness of Decree—Accounts of Trustees.—A decree of partition of the land in which the trustees held an undivided interest in trust, in an action in which the court had jurisdiction of all the parties interested in the land, allotting different portions of it in severalty to the several parties before it, is a determination of the rights of the parties, which became conclusive of their rights, where no appeal was taken therefrom; and accounts of the trustees embracing all of the land allotted to them by such decree in trust for the beneficiaries represented by them, cannot be objected to as not embracing the whole of the trust estate.</p>