In Estate of Keener, two heirs of a trust settlor filed an application to declare heirship. No. 13-18-00007-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 1222 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi February 21, 2019, no pet. history). The beneficiary of the trust filed a plea in intervention in the heirship proceeding, but the trial court denied his intervention. The trust beneficiary filed an appeal of that order. The trust was styled a “gun trust.” The attorney who drafted the trust document advertised “NFA gun trusts” at gun shows across Texas. “In his promotional materials, Crownover advertises his gun trusts as vehicles used to easily transfer federally regulated firearms upon death and also as a way to legally share the use of a federally regulated category III asset, such as a silencer or suppressor, among multiple individuals. The terms of Crownover’s trusts, however, do not limit the trust property to only firearms.” Id. Under the terms of the trust, the settlor could add any real and personal property to it, and the trust did not specify how property was to be added.

The court of appeals first described the concept of a trust:

A trust is a mechanism used to transfer property. Generally, to create a trust in real or personal property, the terms of the trust must be in writing and be signed by the settlor or the settlor’s authorized agent. An inter vivos trust is a trust that is created and takes effect during the settlor’s lifetime. An inter vivos trust is typically created by (1) a declaration of trust, by which the property owner establishes a trust and declares himself or herself to be trustee, or (2) an agreement of trust, by which the property owner establishes a trust and names a third party to be the trustee. Also, a trust cannot be created unless there is trust property [], and the settlor must manifest an intention to create a trust. However, no testamentary intent is required for an inter vivos trust. When a valid trust is created, the beneficiaries become the owners of the equitable or beneficial title to the trust property and are considered the real owners. The trustee is vested with legal title and right of possession of the trust property but holds it for the benefit of the beneficiaries, who are vested with equitable title to the trust property. Acceptance by the trustee of an interest in a trust is presumed. Finally, “[p]roperty may be added to an existing trust from any source in any manner unless the addition is prohibited by the terms of the trust or the property is unacceptable to the trustee.”

Id.

The beneficiary alleged that he was the owner of the property that the heirs sought to inherit because the settlor placed the disputed property in the trust and pointed to Schedule A of the trust for this proposition. The court of appeals agreed: “Our review of the record shows that Yarter is the beneficiary of a trust established by Keener, it is undisputed that a valid trust exists, and the trial court correctly issued a finding that a trust was established.” Id. The court noted that the trust documents also did not limit the purpose of the trust or state that it was intended to only hold firearm-related property. Thus, the heir’s argument that the trust was not intended to transfer anything more than the suppressor necessarily failed. The court held that as the beneficiary of a trust, the beneficiary was an interested person under the Texas Estate’s Code and was the owner of any property that was placed in the trust. “In other words, he has a claim against the property in Keener’s estate that appellees seek to inherit.” Id. The court found that there was a fact issue as to the overall property in the trust and whether Schedule A added any property to the trust. The court concluded that the beneficiary established a justiciable interest in the proceeding and that the trial court failed to follow controlling legal precedent. The trial court erred in denying his plea in intervention.

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Photo of David Fowler Johnson David Fowler Johnson

[email protected]
817.420.8223

David maintains an active trial and appellate practice and has consistently worked on financial institution litigation matters throughout his career. David is the primary author of the The Fiduciary Litigator blog, which reports on legal cases and issues impacting the fiduciary…

[email protected]
817.420.8223

David maintains an active trial and appellate practice and has consistently worked on financial institution litigation matters throughout his career. David is the primary author of the The Fiduciary Litigator blog, which reports on legal cases and issues impacting the fiduciary field in Texas. Read More

David’s financial institution experience includes (but is not limited to): breach of contract, foreclosure litigation, lender liability, receivership and injunction remedies upon default, non-recourse and other real estate lending, class action, RICO actions, usury, various tort causes of action, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and preference and other related claims raised by receivers.

David also has experience in estate and trust disputes including will contests, mental competency issues, undue influence, trust modification/clarification, breach of fiduciary duty and related claims, and accountings. David’s recent trial experience includes:

  • Representing a bank in federal class action suit where trust beneficiaries challenged whether the bank was the authorized trustee of over 220 trusts;
  • Representing a bank in state court regarding claims that it mismanaged oil and gas assets;
  • Representing a bank who filed suit in probate court to modify three trusts to remove a charitable beneficiary that had substantially changed operations;
  • Represented an individual executor of an estate against claims raised by a beneficiary for breach of fiduciary duty and an accounting; and
  • Represented an individual trustee against claims raised by a beneficiary for breach of fiduciary duty, mental competence of the settlor, and undue influence.

David is one of twenty attorneys in the state (of the 84,000 licensed) that has the triple Board Certification in Civil Trial Law, Civil Appellate and Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Additionally, David is a member of the Civil Trial Law Commission of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. This commission writes and grades the exam for new applicants for civil trial law certification.

David maintains an active appellate practice, which includes:

  • Appeals from final judgments after pre-trial orders such as summary judgments or after jury trials;
  • Interlocutory appeals dealing with temporary injunctions, arbitration, special appearances, sealing the record, and receiverships;
  • Original proceedings such as seeking and defending against mandamus relief; and
  • Seeking emergency relief staying trial court’s orders pending appeal or mandamus.

For example, David was the lead appellate lawyer in the Texas Supreme Court in In re Weekley Homes, LP, 295 S.W.3d 309 (Tex. 2009). The Court issued a ground-breaking opinion in favor of David’s client regarding the standards that a trial court should follow in ordering the production of computers in discovery.

David previously taught Appellate Advocacy at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law located in Fort Worth. David is licensed and has practiced in the U.S. Supreme Court; the Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Federal Circuits; the Federal District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas; the Texas Supreme Court and various Texas intermediate appellate courts. David also served as an adjunct professor at Baylor University Law School, where he taught products liability and portions of health law. He has authored many legal articles and spoken at numerous legal education courses on both trial and appellate issues. His articles have been cited as authority by the Texas Supreme Court (twice) and the Texas Courts of Appeals located in Waco, Texarkana, Beaumont, Tyler and Houston (Fourteenth District), and a federal district court in Pennsylvania. David’s articles also have been cited by McDonald and Carlson in their Texas Civil Practice treatise, William v. Dorsaneo in the Texas Litigation Guide, and various authors in the Baylor Law ReviewSt. Mary’s Law JournalSouth Texas Law Review and Tennessee Law Review.

Representative Experience

  • Civil Litigation and Appellate Law