My husband Jase is a hardworking Christian. His mother was mentally ill and was entrusted with a family ranch that has been in the family over 100 years. My husband and I built a house and have cattle on the ranch. Jase has worked his entire life on the ranch. He has put so much heart and soul into making improvements and taking care of it. Unfortunately his mother took her own life in 2024. His father has Alzheimer’s disease and his younger brother took over as sole trustee and POA over their father. His brother kicked us off the family land and confined us and our cattle to a small parcel that we own in our name adjacent to the family ranch all because we wanted to spend time with their father. When we received the accounting for the estate we found that the brother moved tens of thousands of dollars to undisclosed personal accounts. We petitioned to have his brother removed as trustee, not only because he was stealing from their father, he was also isolating him and keeping him from us and our three children, whom are the only grandchildren he has. My husbands brother filed for a dismissal based on an exculpatory clause in the trust. However, exculpatory clauses do not allow trustees to breach fiduciary duty to the beneficiary.

For the first time in Texas, a trustee had the case against them dismissed with out having to prove their innocence. The dismissal was based on this exculpatory clause which is in most trusts, it just protects a trustee from mistakes made in good faith. At the last minute they had an associate judge preside over the hearing. Even though there was overwhelming proof of misconduct, and bad faith the judge approved his dismissal with out looking at any of the proof! This is the very first time this has ever happened in Texas. The law requires the trustee has to prove they’re innocent when the court is presented with proof of misconduct. He was not required to answer for the many discrepancies in the accounting. This decision took all of our rights away as beneficiaries. It will also be the precedent going forward that will allow other dishonest trustees to take advantage of elderly parents and other family members that are beneficiaries.

. We have spent all of our life savings trying to get the brother to be held accountable in court for his actions. With out help we cannot pay for an appeal to stop his brother from continuing to take advantage of their elderly father. The ranch will be sold by the greedy brother and their father will never get to see his grandchildren or meet his great grandchild that will be born this summer. There are 4 generations of history on that ranch. Please help us fight injustice and evil. Help us set this right and hold his brother accountable. We pray that God will provide a way forward.

Help keep other Texans from having their rights taken from them. This is so important because once it’s final, others will hide behind these clauses that were never intended to empower greed and deceit. Trustees in Texas are bound by law to have others interest above their own, and above all, to be transparent. We must shine light into the dark places and expose the wrong doing. I trust that God will provide through His people. Thank you to anyone who will contribute to helping us and all Texans going forward! Let’s make history!

Blessings, Misty