Redlich

Background

For many years, Mother owned and lived in a home in San Diego. In 1997,

Mother purchased another small parcel of property in Northern California (the Humboldt

property). The property was (and still is) largely undeveloped with a mobile home on it.

All further statutory references are to the Probate Code unless otherwise specified. For ease of reference, we omit the word "subdivision" when referring to section 19001, subdivision (a).

2 The next year, in October 1998, Mother created a revocable trust, naming herself

as the sole trustee and her daughter Eva as the successor trustee. The Trust expressly

states that it is revocable by the trustor. The Trust additionally stated that upon Mother's

death, the trustee "shall divide the trust estate into [three] equal shares" with one share

going to each daughter.

Shortly after, Mother executed a deed transferring title to the Humboldt property

into the Trust. Thereafter, Mother paid all the taxes, insurance, and other expenses for

the Humboldt property, and Jeanette lived at the property (for at least a portion of each

year).

About 12 years later, on January 19, 2010, while Mother was in the…