Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...As part of the settlement the county reserved the right to appeal the Ramseys' entitlement to the business damages. The county argues that the Ramseys' attempt to create a trust for the benefit of Enterprises failed because the Ramseys did not execute a deed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses as required by section 689.06, Florida Statutes (1993)....

...ation of a trust by the owner of property who declares that he holds it as trustee for another person. That person may be a corporation. Id. § 116. The conclusion that a trust in land can be created without the formality of a deed is not changed by section 689.06, Florida Statutes, which provides that the conveyance of a trust estate of land is void unless the transfer is by duly executed will or by deed signed and delivered in the presence of two subscribing witnesses....

...The transfer of title to a trustee is the event that brings the trust into existence. 76 Am.Jur.2d Trusts § 52 (1992). And, in order to create a valid trust, there must be an actual conveyance or transfer of the property. Id. If a settlor attempts to transfer real property to a trustee, the requirements of section 689.06 apply....

...Van Devere, 502 So.2d 454 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986), rev. denied, 511 So.2d 998 (Fla. 1987) (holding that attempted inter vivos transfer of real property to a trustee merely by a witnessed declaration was void, but failing to cite either section 689.05 or section 689.06). In the instant case, however, the requirements of section 689.06 were not invoked because the Ramseys did not transfer the real property....

...her own benefit, but holds it strictly for the benefit of another). Accordingly, because the Ramseys did not need to transfer title to the property in order to create a trust of their land with themselves as trustee, they did not need to comply with section 689.06, and it was enough that they complied with section 689.05....

...If the statute of uses executed the trust so that the legal title vested in Enterprises, a most undesirable result would be achieved. The legislature's statutory scheme evinces a strict pattern of requiring two subscribing witnesses in the inter vivos and testamentary alienation of real property. §§ 689.01, 689.06, 732.502, Fla....

...an. COBB, Judge. The issue raised in this appeal is whether the assignment of an interest in an Illinois land trust created in accordance with section 689.071, Florida Statutes, must be witnessed by two witnesses in accordance with the provisions of section 689.06, Florida Statutes. We hold that section 689.06 does not apply and no witnesses are required....

...The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment and found in favor of the Mandells on the ground that the assignment was invalid as a matter of law. It is this summary final judgment that Evelyn Goldman is appealing. Basically, Evelyn Goldman contends that since section 689.071 was enacted subsequent to section 689.06, section 689.071 supersedes; and since section 689.071 allows for a trust interest in real property to be deemed personal property, that means that section 689.06 no longer applies to the transfer of an interest in a land trust. Therefore, she argues that the trial court erred in ruling that the assignment was invalid. On the other hand, the Mandells argue that if the Legislature had intended for section 689.071 to be outside of the requirements of section 689.06, it would have expressly so worded section 689.071. Since the Legislature did not expressly exclude section 689.071 from the provisions of section 689.06, the Mandells argue that the two statutes should be read in pari materia with the two-witness requirement of section 689.06 applying to the land trust created by section 689.071....

...Appellants contend that this is an archaic principle of common law no longer having any place in modern jurisprudence and that most of the common law concepts of contracts under seal have been abolished by statutes. This contention is well taken where specific statutes have been enacted, such as § 689.06, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., which abolished the necessity for a seal on deeds....

to transfer the two properties as trustee. See § 689.06, Fla. Stat. (titled “[h]ow trust estate conveyed”)

...ing that “[t]he transfer of title to a trustee is the event that brings the trust into existence” 7 provided that “[if] a settlor attempts to transfer real property to a trustee, the requirements of section 689.06 apply”); see also William Kalish, The Florida Bar, Administration of Trusts in Florida, § 14.4.C....