Conservatorship of Bookasta

In Conservatorship of Bookasta (1989) 216 Cal. App. 3d 445, the conservatees were a husband and wife, aged respectively 101 and 91 years old. They revoked their family trust and entered into new wills, then petitioned the trial court under Probate Code section 1873 , to establish their legal capacity to have undertaken these acts. The trial court denied the petition, finding that the conservatees lacked legal capacity to make a will or to effectuate revocation of their trusts. The appellate court reversed, determining that the trial court abused its discretion. Although the husband and wife were subject to a conservatorship, the attorney who assisted them in their estate planning averred that they were "fully competent" to undertake that planning, and conservator testified that trust revocations were not detrimental to conservatees or to conservatorship estate.