No Personal Jurisdiction in Intra-Family Squabble

August 3, 2014

The appellant (brother to appellee) claimed the probate court lacked personal jurisdiction over him.  Appellee asserted that the appellant’s individual assistance to the parties’ quadriplegic mother in a probate matter in 2008 (the appellant’s only contact with Texas) required the court to exercise jurisdiction over her brother.  The Court held, however, that at the time he assisted his mother in the prior lawsuit, the appellant was not serving as trustee of the Trust at issue in the present lawsuit, and thus his contact with the state was in a separate, individual capacity.

Stauffer v. Nicholson