Colorado § 13-51-108 - Purposes of declaration.

§ 13-51-108. Purposes of declaration.

(1) Any person interested as or through an executor, administrator, trustee, guardian, or other fiduciary, creditor, devisee, legatee, heir, next of kin, or cestui que trust in the administration of a trust or of the estate of a decedent, an infant, a mental incompetent, or an insolvent may have a declaration of rights or legal relations in respect thereto:

(a) To ascertain any class of creditors, devisees, legatees, heirs, next of kin, or other; or

(b) To direct the executors, administrators, or trustees to do or abstain from doing any particular act in their fiduciary capacity; or

(c) To determine any question arising in the administration of the estate or trust, including questions of construction of wills and other writings.

Source: L. 23: p. 269, § 4. CSA: C. 93, § 81. CRS 53: § 77-11-4. C.R.S. 1963: § 77-11-4. L. 75: IP(1) amended, p. 925, § 18, effective July 1.

ANNOTATION

Law reviews. For article, "Express Trusts in Colorado", see 10 Rocky Mt. L. Rev. 9 (1937).

This section does not authorize advice on matters not before the court. The court at the request of the parties will determine all questions that have properly arisen, but will decline to determine those which had not arisen and which might never arise during the administration of the trust. Neither under the equity practice nor under this act are the courts required to give general advice and instructions upon matters which have nut arisen at the time their jurisdiction is invoked. Mulcahy v. Johnson, 80 Colo. 499, 252 P. 816 (1927).

It confers no new authority concerning wills and trusts. District courts had full and complete jurisdiction before the passage of that act to construe wills and trusts and to control executors and trustees in the administration of estates. Mulcahy v. Johnson, 80 Colo. 499, 252 P. 816 (1927).

Applied in In re Estate of Daigle, 634 P.2d 71 (Colo. 1981).