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relevant question is whether the limited partnership held
beneficial interests in the timber and pecan orchards on the
subject property in implied trusts in favor of Walter and Betty.
This question is meaningful only as it pertains to the period
before the limited partnership terminated in 1988. After the
limited partnership terminated and quitclaimed its interests in
the subject property to the partners, any such implied trusts
would have also terminated, since whatever beneficial interests
the limited partnership might have held in implied trusts in
favor of Walter and Betty would have merged with Walter’s and
Betty’s respective legal interests in the subject property. We
believe that when the Georgia Trust Act provides that it “shall
apply to any trust regardless of the date it was created”, Ga.
Code Ann. sec. 53-12-3 (1997), it presupposes that the trust to
which it is to apply is extant on or after the July 1, 1991,
effective date of the Georgia Trust Act. It would be anomalous
to apply the Georgia Trust Act retroactively to a trust that
necessarily would have terminated, if it ever existed, before the
enactment of the Georgia Trust Act. Accordingly, we conclude
that the Georgia Trust Act is inapplicable and that Georgia
statutory law as in effect no later than the date the limited
partnership terminated--i.e., October 7, 1988--should govern.
Cf. Major Realty Corp. v. Commissioner, 749 F.2d 1483, 1486 (11th
Cir. 1985).
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