Prob. Code, § 16402 · Article 1. Liability for Breach of Trust
Prob. Code, § 16402
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), a trustee is not liable to the beneficiary for a breach of trust committed by a cotrustee.
(b) A trustee is liable to the beneficiary for a breach committed by a cotrustee under any of the following circumstances:
(1) Where the trustee participates in a breach of trust committed by the cotrustee.
(2) Where the trustee improperly delegates the administration of the trust to the cotrustee.
(3) Where the trustee approves, knowingly acquiesces in, or conceals a breach of trust committed by the cotrustee.
(4) Where the trustee negligently enables the cotrustee to commit a breach of trust.
(5) Where the trustee neglects to take reasonable steps to compel the cotrustee to redress a breach of trust in a case where the trustee knows or has information from which the trustee reasonably should have known of the breach.
(c) The liability of a trustee for acts or omissions of a cotrustee that occurred before July 1, 1987, is governed by prior law and not by this section.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Enacted by Stats. 1990, Ch. 79.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB§ionNum=16402.
- Text hash
- sha256 b60ea0a67c9730d8fd528f90221e6dbafb56461e7ba32f90b473a3aabb128a7e
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.