Khan v. Khan

Citations

• 234 Conn. App. 325

Syllabus

The named defendant in the first action and the plaintiff in the second action, L, the trustee of a family trust established by her former husband as grantor, appealed from the trial court's judgments in two separate actions that were consolidated for trial. In the first action, the court rendered judgment for the plaintiffs, several of L's children who were beneficiaries of the trust, on their claims of, inter alia, breach of fiduciary duty with respect to L's termination of an insurance policy held by the trust and the transfer of the policy proceeds to her personal bank and investment accounts. In the second action, the trial court denied L's claim for indemnifi- cation under the trust agreement for damages awarded in the first action. L claimed, inter alia, that the trial court improperly concluded that she was liable for wilful misconduct. Held: The trial court properly concluded in the first action that L breached her fiduciary duty to the trust, as the evidence was sufficient to support the court's findings that L knowingly misrepresented to the insurance company that the bank account to which she transferred the policy proceeds was titled in the name of the trust when she knew that she was directing the funds to her personal account, that L did not advise the plaintiffs or the grantor that the policy had been terminated or that the policy proceeds had been invested in her personal accounts, and that L opened a trust account for the policy proceeds only after being advised by the grantor's attorneys that she had improperly transferred the policy proceeds to her personal accounts, and, thus, the court's resulting damages award was not clearly erroneous. The trial court's findings supported its conclusion in the first action that L's conduct was wilful, as, although the court found that L did not have the requisite intent to deprive the plaintiffs of the policy proceeds for purposes of the statutory theft count in their complaint, that finding did not require a