Can Fiduciaries Avoid Liability Under Law?
Author: by GEORGE C. WEIR, Attorney GEORGE C. WEIR, of the Hawaii and California Bars, is Senior Vice President of Hawaiian Trust Company, Ltd., in Honolulu. He has previously written for professional publications. A fiduciary will often be considered an owner or operator of real estate, liable for the cost of cleanup under environmental law. This article suggests steps that fiduciaries can take to escape or mitigate liability. As the courts have liberalized their view of what constitutes an appropriate trust asset, more and more fiduciaries are faced with the question of how to deal with real estate that forms a significant portion of many trusts and estates. Beyond the obvious issues of title and tenancy, the estate planner must be extremely sensitive to the growing body of law that seems designed to place liability for environmental problems on the defendant with the deepest pockets.
