section does not preclude other methods of obtaining jurisdiction over a trustee, a beneficiary, or any other person receiving property from the trust," Uniform Trust Code Article 2-202(c), meaning a state's applicable long-arm statute may afford personal jurisdiction over a trustee where minimum contacts exist with that state. Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(k)(1)(A) provides that a federal district court may assert personal jurisdiction over a defendant who would be subject to jurisdiction in state court in the state where the district court is located. See Lydia Schweer Family Trust ex rel. Fuqua v. Dingler, 2010 WL 55599 (M.D. Fla. 2010) (Personal jurisdiction over out-of-state life insurance company held proper in lawsuit by trustee on behalf of trust originally settled in Georgia where life insurance's ongoing communications with trustee, which provided the basis of the tort action, occurred while trustee was living in Florida.) See also Navarro Savings Ass'n v. Lee, 446 U.S. 458, 464, 100 S.Ct. 1779, 64 L.Ed.2d 425 (1980) (As the trustee is the real party to the controversy, it is the trustee's citizenship, not the citizenship of the beneficiaries, that will determine whether diversity jurisdiction exists.) While litigation involving a trust may involve complex issues, an attorney taking time to consider the fundamentals of civil procedure in that context serves his or her clients' best interests. Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. |