Snuggs v. Snuggs

The plaintiff stated a claim for breach of an oral, implied advanced education trust since he alleged that his mother admitted holding the trust property and intended to use it for her own personal benefit.

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The appellant, James Snuggs, filed this action against his parents, Louise Snuggs and John Mason Snuggs, Sr,1 contending that he was entitled to recover funds that were due him under an oral, implied trust allegedly established by his maternal grandfather “to fund the advanced educations” of his four grandchildren. Louise Snuggs moved to dismiss James’s complaint, and in ruling on the motion, the trial court assumed that a trust had been created, and assumed that the allegations of James’s complaint were true.2 The trial court ruled that James’s action was barred by the applicable statute of limitations and that the complaint failed to state a claim on which relief could be granted. James has now filed this appeal. Because we conclude that the trial court erred in granting the motion to dismiss, we reverse its judgment and remand the case to it for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

1. The applicable statute of limitations for a breach of trust claim that arises after July 1, 1991, is, in relevant part, six years from the date the beneficiary “discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the subject of the claim.”3 As for claims that arose before July 1, 1991, § 53-12-198 d provides that such a “claim is barred unless a proceeding to assert the claim is commenced either prior to the date the claim would have been barred had this Code section not been enacted or within six years from July 1, 1991, whichever is sooner.” In the present case, if § 53-12-198 had not been enacted, the applicable statute of limitations for James’s breach of trust claim would have been OCGA § 9-3-27, which required breach of trust claims to be brought within ten years of the accrual of the cause of action.4 Thus, for claims arising before July 1, 1991, James would have had to bring the claim within ten years from the date the cause of action accrued or within six years of July 1, 1991, whichever was sooner.

Snuggs v. Snuggs

The plaintiff stated a claim for breach of an oral, implied advanced education trust since he alleged that his mother admitted holding the trust property and intended to use it for her own personal benefit.

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