Sheen

FACTS

The Beginning In early 1997, Quinlock Sheen (hereafter Ms. Sheen) declared and established the Quinlock Sheen Living Trust. The trust provided for the distribution of its assets, on Ms. Sheen’s death, in equal shares to her six adult children, and, in the event a child had died, to the issue of the deceased child.1 In 2001, Ms. Sheen, as trustee, deeded certain trust assets, including a house and adjacent duplex on South Spaulding Avenue in Los Angeles, and other real property in Missouri, to one of her children, Dolores Sheen. After the transfers, Dolores encumbered the Spaulding Avenue duplex with two loans secured by deeds of trust. Ms. Sheen died in 2002. The Foundational Probate Court Proceeding and Appeal In July 2005, Ms. Sheen’s daughter Eugenia Ringgold, who was both a beneficiary of the trust was also the trustee of the trust, joined other beneficiaries of the trust, namely, Charles Sheen and Deryl Gaylord (grandchildren; children of a predeceased son, Robert)

1 The six children identified in the trust instrument were listed respectively: Herbert Sheen, Eugenia (Sheen) Ringgold, Dolores (Sheen) Blunt, Robert Sheen, Mildred Imelda Sheen and Carol (Sheen)…