## Facts

- Amelia Daily Huston executed durable powers of attorney naming her neighbor, John E. Amberg, as attorney-in-fact to manage her finances for compensation.
- The written powers of attorney expressly prohibited Amberg from making gifts to himself.
- Using Huston’s funds and acting under the power of attorney, Amberg arranged purchase of a $90,000 annuity in Huston’s name.
- Huston orally expressed an intent that the annuity benefit Amberg at her death, and she orally assented to the arrangement in the presence of a bank representative; no written authorization or modification permitting a self-gift was executed.
- Huston died in 1993; her will was admitted to probate and Amberg was appointed executor.
- After death, the annuity’s terms did not transfer the value to Amberg outright and instead placed the benefit with the estate’s residuary beneficiaries.
- Acting in his personal capacity, Amberg petitioned the probate court for an order determining ownership and directing conveyance of the annuity to him.
- Residuary beneficiary Mary Deonne Greene objected, arguing the self-benefiting transaction was unauthorized and not validly ratified.

## Issues

1. Whether an attorney-in-fact may complete a gift to himself when the written power of attorney expressly forbids self-gifts, based only on the principal’s oral approval.
2. Whether ratification of an agent’s unauthorized act must satisfy the same formal requirements as the original grant of authority under a power of attorney.
3. Whether a probate court may treat the estate as holding property in trust for the agent based on evidence of donative intent, despite the power of attorney’s written limits.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal reversed the probate court’s order granting Amberg’s petition.
- The annuity transfer to Amberg was void because it exceeded the authority conferred by the written power of attorney, which prohibited gifts to the agent.
- The principal’s oral assent was legally insufficient to ratify or enlarge an agent’s authority granted and limited by a written power of attorney.
- The annuity remained an estate asset for distribution under the will.

## Legal Principles

- A power of attorney is a written delegation of specified authority and is strictly limited by its express terms.
- An agent lacks authority to make a gift to himself when the power of attorney expressly prohibits self-dealing.
- Ratification of an agent’s act must occur in the manner required to confer the original authority; when authority must be in writing, oral ratification is ineffective.
- Equity (including a resulting-trust theory) cannot be used to bypass statutory and formal safeguards that restrict fiduciary self-dealing under a power of attorney.

## Conclusion

Because the written power of attorney barred Amberg from making gifts to himself, and because Huston’s oral assent could not validly ratify or expand that written authority, the annuity could not be awarded to Amberg and remained part of Huston’s estate.


Estate of Huston, 51 Cal. App. 4th 1721, 60 Cal. Rptr. 2d 217 (Ct. App. 1997)