Oklahoma § 60-175.18 - Action on trustee contract - Personal liability of

§ 60-175.18. Action on trustee contract - Personal liability of

trustee - Trustee as general or limited partner.

Whenever a trustee shall make a contract which is within his

powers as trustee, or a predecessor trustee shall have made such a

contract, and a cause of action arises thereon:

1. The party in whose favor the cause of action has accrued may

sue the trustee in his representative capacity, and any judgment

rendered in such action in favor of the plaintiff shall be

collectible by execution out of the trust property. In such an

action the plaintiff need not prove that the trustee could have

secured reimbursement from the trust fund if he had paid the

plaintiff's claim.

2. No judgment shall be rendered in favor of the plaintiff in

such action unless he proves that within thirty (30) days after the

beginning of such action, or within such other time as the court may

fix, and more than thirty (30) days prior to obtaining the judgment,

he notified each of the beneficiaries known to the trustee who then

had a present or contingent interest, or in the case of a charitable

trust the Attorney General and any corporation which is a

beneficiary or agency in the performance of such charitable trust,

of the existence and nature of the action. Such notice shall be

given by mailing copies thereof in postpaid envelopes addressed to

the parties to be notified at their last-known addresses. The

trustee shall furnish the plaintiff a list of the parties to be

notified, and their addresses, within ten (10) days after written

demand therefor, and notification of the persons on such list shall

constitute compliance with the duty placed on the plaintiff by this

section. Any beneficiary, or in the case of charitable trusts, the

Attorney General and any corporation which is a beneficiary or

agency in the performance of such charitable trust, may intervene in

such action and contest the right of the plaintiff to recover. If

any beneficiary is a minor or has been adjudged incompetent, the

court shall appoint a guardian ad litem, whose duty it shall be to

defend such action.

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 60. Property

3. The plaintiff may also hold the trustee who made the

contract personally liable on such contract, if the contract does

not exclude such personal liability. The addition of the word

"trustee" or the words "as trustee" after the signature of a trustee

to a contract shall be deemed prima facie evidence of an intent to

exclude the trustee from personal liability.

4. If a decedent was a partner in a general partnership and the

articles of partnership so provide, on the death of a partner, his

or her trustee shall be entitled to the place of the deceased

partner in the partnership. Likewise, any other trustee contracting

to enter into a general partnership in its capacity as trustee shall

have its liability limited to the trust assets contributed to the

partnership and the other assets of that trust under the control and

management of the contract. A trustee so entering the partnership

shall be liable to third persons only to the extent of the

decedent's capital in the partnership and the funds of the trust

under the control and management of the trustee. This paragraph

does not exonerate a trustee from liability for negligence.

5. Unless otherwise authorized, directed or restricted by order

of court or by the instrument creating the trust, a trustee may

contract to enter into a limited partnership pursuant to the Limited

Partnership Act and may contribute to the partnership the assets

designated by the instrument creating the trust. The trustee shall

be liable only to the extent of the assets contributed by the

trustee pursuant to the instrument creating the trust,

notwithstanding the occurrence of any act or event which would

otherwise have the effect of changing the limited partnership into a

general partnership. This paragraph does not exonerate a trustee

from liability for negligence.

Laws 1941, p. 253, § 18; Laws 1981, c. 196, § 2.