Ohio: SOL for Breach of Trust Begins When Beneficiaries Learn of Alleged Breach

The successor trustee and a beneficiary brought suit for breach of duty against the prior trustee for alleged self-dealing in indirectly acquiring shares of stock in a closely held company by causing the trust to sell to a company which was effectively controlled by the trustee. The sales occurred 25 years before the suit was brought.

The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s dismissal, holding that the four year statute of limitations began to run at the time of the sale because the beneficiaries knew of the sale and of all of the actions of which they complain.

One justice dissented on the grounds that the decision was based on “facts and inferences” not in the complaint.

Cundall v. U.S. Bank, 909 N.E.2d 1244 (Ohio 2009).