O.C.G.A.
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
The trustee shall be accountable to the beneficiary for the trust property. A violation by the trustee of any duty that the trustee owes the beneficiary shall be a breach of trust.
History
Code 1981, § 53-12-300, enacted by Ga. L. 2010, p. 579, § 1/SB 131.
Annotations
Cross references. - Registration of securities generally, § 10-5-20 et seq.
Law reviews. - For article, ‘‘The Georgia Trust Act,’’ 28 Ga. St. B.J. 95 (1991).
JUDICIAL DECISIONS Trustee properly found to have breached fiduciary duty. - It was not an abuse of discretion to deny a new trial motion brought by a trustee who was found to have breached the trustee’s fiduciary duty to trust beneficiaries by making distributions to a co-trustee under a trust’s encroachment provision because the trustee breached the trustee’s duty to protect the trust corpus as: (1) the trustee inconsistently required the co-trustee to provide supporting evidence for corpus distributions and let the co-trustee exceed an allotted budget; and (2) the beneficiaries were damaged by the resulting reduction in trust corpus. Reliance Trust Co. v. Candler, 315 Ga. App. 495, 726 S.E.2d 636 (2012). Breach of trust issue for jury. - In a trust beneficiary’s action against a co-trustee and others, issues of fact remained as to the beneficiary’s claims for breach of fiduciary duty arising out of the sale of a trust asset for less than fair market value and failure to account for a commission owed on the sale, rendering
summary judgment on these claims improper. Kahn v. Britt, 330 Ga. App. 377, 765 S.E.2d 446 (2014). In a beneficiary’s claims against a trustee and the trust’s attorneys, issues of fact remained as to the trustee’s and attorneys’ duties surrounding the sale of the trust’s cattle ranch at auction because no appraisal was done, the sale was only run for seven weeks, the trustee believed the land was worth more than the price obtained, and the trustee failed to consider a commission due to a real estate agent. Kahn v. Britt, 330 Ga. App. 377, 765 S.E.2d 446 (2014). Sale of trust asset to a co-trustee through a straw man. - Because there were genuine issues as to whether trustees fraudulently concealed their breach of fiduciary duty in selling the principal trust asset to a co-trustee at a discount through a straw man in 1979, tolling the statute of limitations, and whether the beneficiaries exercised diligence in discovering the fraud, summary judgment was improper. Smith v. SunTrust Bank, 325 Ga. App. 531, 754 S.E.2d 117 (2014).
RESEARCH REFERENCES ALR. - Liability of trustee or other fiduciary for loss on investment as affected by the fact that it was taken in his
own name without indication of fiduciary capacity, 150 A.L.R. 805.
Notes of Decisions
Roger F. Kahn v. Daniel Lamar Britt, Jr., 765 S.E.2d 446 (Ga. Ct. App. 2014).
· cites it 2× “The Kahn Plaintiffs also contend that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to Gwaltney on the claims that Gwalt-ney breached his fiduciary duty to Kahn and RK Trust. We agree in part.”
Nalley v. Langdale, 734 S.E.2d 908 (Ga. Ct. App. 2012).
· cites it 2× “” OCGA § 53-12-300. 18 In order to recover for a trustee’s breach of trust, a beneficiary must show proof of damages proximately caused by the breach.”
Smith v. Suntrust Bank, 754 S.E.2d 117 (Ga. Ct. App. 2014).
· cites it 2× “Consequently, trustees are “accountable to the beneficiarles] for the trust property,” OCGA § 53-12-300, and must “exercise the highest degree of good faith as to all matters connected with the property committed to their care.”
Reliance Trust Co. v. Candler, 726 S.E.2d 636 (Ga. Ct. App. 2012).
· cites it 2× “” OCGA § 53-12-300. 2 In order to recover for a trustee’s breach of trust, a beneficiary must show proof of damages proximately caused by the breach.”
Rollins v. Rollins, 741 S.E.2d 251 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013).
· cites it 2× “” 34 OCGA § 53-12-300 provides that a “trustee shall be accountable to the beneficiary for the trust property.”
James Farmer v. Christie Lynn Mitchell (Ga. Ct. App. 2025).
· cites it 2× “” OCGA § 53-12-300. And where a trustee: commits a breach of trust, or threatens to commit a breach of trust, a beneficiary shall have a cause of action to seek: (1) To recover damages; (2) To compel the trustee to perform the trustee’s duties; (3) To require an accounting; (4)…”
Glen W. Rollins v. Gary W. Rollins (Ga. Ct. App. 2013).
· cites it 2× “A trustee is a fiduciary and, as such, is held to the highest standard of the law, because a fiduciary is a “person who is required to act for the benefit of another person on all matters within the scope of their relationship; one who owes to another the duties of good faith,…”
Don W. Smith v. Suntrust Bank (Ga. Ct. App. 2014).
· cites it 2× “Consequently, trustees are “accountable to the beneficiar[ies] for the trust property,” OCGA § 53-12-300, and must “exercise the highest degree of good faith as to all matters connected with the property committed to their care.”
Roger F. Kahn v. Daniel Lamar Britt, Jr. (Ga. Ct. App. 2014).
· cites it 2× “The Kahn Plaintiffs also contend that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to Gwaltney on the claims that Gwaltney breached his fiduciary duty to Kahn and RK Trust. We agree in part.”
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