Pratt

Introduction

David Pratt obtained court orders requiring his ex-wife, Cynthia Vedder, to pay child support and expenses. All those orders are final. Vedder is the beneficiary of a trust established by her grandparents. Pratt filed a petition to compel Robert L. Ferguson, the trustee of the Borgert Vedder and Nellie A. Vedder Revocable Trust (the Trustee), to satisfy the orders from Vedder’s share of the trust estate. The trial court denied the petition based on a clause in the trust that prohibited the Trustee from making certain distributions if they would become subject to Vedder’s creditors’ claims (the shutdown clause). We reverse.

We hold that, notwithstanding the shutdown clause, Probate Code section 15305 gives the trial court discretion to order a trustee to make distributions of income and principal to satisfy the final child support orders. Probate Code section 15305, subdivision (d) expressly states that the section “applies to a support judgment notwithstanding any provision in the trust instrument.” (Italics added.)

As described more particularly in the disposition, we remand to the trial court to exercise its discretion to order satisfaction of the child…