The Justices in Illinois’ First District Appellate Court agreed with a Cook County trial court’s granting of summary judgement for two of HeplerBroom’s clients. In addition, the Appellate Court reversed the award of only partial attorney fees and costs and granted the clients recovery of all attorney fees and costs.

The case stemmed from the death of a Cook County woman in 2017. A nephew became successor trustee of her trust but never disbursed the funds in accordance with the trust. In 2019, the clients, which are charitable organizations, received anonymous phone calls informing them that they were beneficiaries of the woman’s trust.

After 18 months of seeking information from the trustee, the beneficiaries sued for an accounting, later adding a claim for breach of fiduciary duty upon learning that the trustee had taken all the trust funds as purported trustee fees. The trial court granted summary judgment to the beneficiaries, entering judgment against the trustee for their share of the trust funds and awarded the charities approximately one-third of their attorney’s fees and costs. The trustee appealed.

The appellate court affirmed that the facts entitled the beneficiaries to summary judgment. Furthermore, it ruled that because the defendant engaged in “egregious misconduct” in breaching his fiduciary duties, the charities were entitled to the full award of attorney fees and costs, including those incurred on appeal.

Wilson is a partner in the firm’s Springfield office. He is rated an AV Preeminent Attorney by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named both an Illinois Leading Lawyer and an Illinois Super Lawyer. Julieta Kosiba is an associate attorney working for the firm’s Springfield office.