Minnesota Appeals Court Upholds Removal of Otto Bremer Trust Trustee

In this space we have previously reported on first the Minnesota Attorney General seeking to replace the trustees of the Otto Bremer Trust, and then on the decision by a Minnesota trial court to remove one trustee but not two others. That decision led to an appeal by the removed trustee, and last week the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the removal.

Applying an abuse of discretion standard, the appellate court found that the district court had properly removed the trustee for a "serious breach of trust" arising from self-dealing in the form of misuse of the Trust's assets, violations of his duty of loyalty for allowing his personal interests to significantly and negatively impact his decisions and behavior as a trustee in the form of inappropriate and abusive behavior, and a violation of his duty of information by refusing to disclose his designated successor's identity to the Attorney General until forced to do so while testifying at trial. The appellate court further found that the district also properly removed the trustee because it was in the best interest of the Trust and its beneficiaries given these continual breaches of his duties that rendered the removed trustee unfit to administer the Trust.

Media Coverage: Minnesota Lawyer; Pioneer Press; Star Tribune.