Government taking of trust assets
Pellegrini v. Fresno County Public Guardian as Trustee
In brief
- Where it stands
- Dismissed
Petition denied.
- What it’s about
- Beverly Pellegrini says California courts allowed her late spouse’s revocable-trust assets to be liquidated and transferred to an instrument that was not legally a trust, for distribution to county employees and other nonbeneficiaries.
- Who it affects
- Pellegrini received no Supreme Court decision on whether the alleged handling of the trust assets violated her constitutional rights.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.

What it's about
She argues that the orders violated constitutional protections against government taking private property and for fair legal procedures.
Pellegrini’s case raised Fifth Amendment property-taking and Fourteenth Amendment fair-procedure claims over California court proceedings.
Question presented
1. Whether the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause and Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause are violated when state courts, without statutory authority over the property or parties, affirm orders by materially misrepresenting evidence to liquidate a surviving spouse's revocable trust assets and transfer them to an instrument that fails as a trust by operation of law for distribution to county government employees and other non beneficiary third parties. 2. Whether procedural due process is violated when: (i) trial court findings at close are verbatim to pre-trial findings entered on the docket; and (ii) a state appellate court intentionally misstates evidence to avoid review of threshold jurisdictional issues thereby justifying a wrongful taking of property. 3. Whether the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause is violated when a state court, lacking statutory authority over the property and parties of a prior action applies forfeiture: (i) to threshold jurisdictional issues raised but never adjudicated; and (ii) against an unjoined party whose interest derives from a separate trust not at issue in the prior action when preclusion does not apply.
Documents
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Sources
Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.