(a) Except as otherwise provided in the contract, a trustee is not personally liable on a contract properly entered into in the trustee‘s fiduciary capacity in the course of administering the trust if the trustee in the contract disclosed the fiduciary capacity.

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 35-15-1010

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Fiduciary: means :
    (A) A trustee, conservator, guardian, agent under any agency agreement or other instrument, an executor, personal representative or administrator of a decedent's estate, or any other party, including a trust advisor or a trust protector, who is acting in a fiduciary capacity for any person, trust, or estate. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, legal or equitable, or any interest therein. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
  • Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
  • Trustee: includes an original, additional, and successor trustee, and a cotrustee. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
(b) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (a) or (c), the debts, obligations and liabilities incurred by a trustee by reason of the ownership, management or control of trust property in the trustee’s fiduciary capacity, shall be enforceable solely against the trust and its property, without any obligation or liability personally being borne by any trustee of such trust.
(c) A trustee is personally liable for torts committed in the course of administering a trust only if the trustee is personally at fault on account of the trustee’s own willful misconduct proven by clear and convincing evidence.
(d) A claim based on a contract entered into by a trustee in the trustee’s fiduciary capacity, on an obligation arising from ownership or control of trust property, or on a tort committed in the course of administering a trust, may be asserted in a judicial proceeding against the trustee in the trustee’s fiduciary capacity, whether or not the trustee is personally liable for the claim.