Abbott v. Williams

167 N.E. 357, 268 Mass. 275, 1929 Mass. LEXIS 1368
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedJuly 11, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 167 N.E. 357 (Abbott v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abbott v. Williams, 167 N.E. 357, 268 Mass. 275, 1929 Mass. LEXIS 1368 (Mass. 1929).

Opinion

Sanderson, J.

This case comes up by appeals from decrees of the Probate Court entered upon two petitions, one by the trustees under the will of George W. A. Williams asking for instructions as to the disposition of a fund representing the proceeds of the sale of real estate which had been occupied as a home by George Albree in accordance with article twenty-two of the will; the other a petition by George Albree, executor of the will of his deceased wife, Georgianna [282]*282Albree, and by George Norman Albree personally and as one of the executors of the will of Helen L. Williams, deceased, seeking distribution of a part of the trust estate.

The will of George W. A. Williams was executed February 24, 1887, when the testator was sixty-seven years old. He died March 21, 1891, survived by his widow, Harriet C. Williams, and by a son, Joseph B. Williams, an unmarried daughter, Helen L. Williams, and a daughter, Georgianna Albree, wife of George Albree — the children by his first wife, Susan L. Williams, who died in 1868. Harriet C. Williams had no children. Georgianna Albree left surviving her one child, George Norman Albree, and died testate in 1894. Her husband was executor of and sole legatee under her will. Harriet C. Williams died testate in 1920, leaving her estate to her blood relations, to two of her personal friends, and to two nieces of her deceased husband. Helen L. Williams died testate in 1925. Her nephews, George Norman Albree and Francis C. Williams, are executors of her will, and she left the residue of her estate in equal shares to her niece, Constance Williams, her nephew, George Norman Albree, and her grandniece, Helen B. Williams, daughter of Francis C. Williams. Joseph B. Williams died testate in May, 1928, after the petition by the trustees was filed, leaving three children, Pearce P. Williams, Constance Williams and Francis Williams. Pearce P. Williams is the executor of the will of his father, who left all of his estate to his daughter Constance. After the death of Joseph B. Williams, the trustees amended their petition, seeking instructions as to the disposition of surplus income and interest accruing after his death.

By the twenty-first article of the will of George W. A. Williams the residue of his estate was given to trustees with instructions to pay the income in fife payments in stated sums to his wife, son, daughters, sister, brother, widow of brother, three nieces, and a person not related. By the twenty-fifth article of the will an annuity was given to the testator’s grandson, Pearce P. Williams. Of these annuitants, this grandson, the widow of the testator’s brother, and a niece now survive. The aggregate of the annual payments [283]*283to them amounts to $2,480, and the trust fund is in excess of $331,000. The twenty-eighth article of the will provides: “Upon the decease of all the annuitants herein mentioned, viz: . . . [naming the eleven annuitants named in the twenty-first article of the will] I direct my said Trustees and their successors to pay over and convey all the trust funds and estate of every kind then in their hands to my legal heirs and representatives whoever they may be, to be determined by, and the distribution to be made in accordance with, the Statutes of this Commonwealth. To have and to hold the same to them and their heirs and assigns forever and this trust shall thereupon be terminated and cancelled.” The grandson, Pearce P. Williams, was not named in article twenty-eight.

1. Upon the petition for distribution the judge found that the trust estate was largely in excess of the principal amount needed to support the three remaining annuities; that $75,000 was adequate for that purpose; and ordered that all of the trust estate in excess of $75,000 be converted into cash and distributed, less allowances to counsel and charges of trustees, to the personal representatives of the testator’s heirs at law determined as of the date of his death,

In the twenty-eighth article of the will the testator fixed the date of the death of the last annuitant named therein as the time when the trust estate should terminate. There is no provision in the will indicative of a purpose that it should end at an earlier date. No sufficient reason appears for termination of the trust as to a part of the estate now. The testator’s expressed intention must be controlling. Schaffer v. Wadsworth, 106 Mass. 19, 24. Claflin v. Claflin, 149 Mass. 19, 22. Young v. Snow, 167 Mass. 287. Forbes v. Snow, 245 Mass. 85, 93. In Sears v. Hardy, 120 Mass. 524, 541, 542, there was an intestacy as to the principal of the trust fund with a resulting trust in favor of the testator’s son, and the order therein made for a partial termination of the trust was not inconsistent with the terms of the will. The decree of the Probate Court ordering a partial termination of the trust and distribution of principal is reversed. It is unnecessary at the present time to decide as of what date legal [284]*284heirs are to be determined or who is to be included among them.

2. The twenty-seventh article of the will provides that in case of a deficiency of the annual income from the principal trust fund the annuity to the testator’s widow should be paid in full, and the other annuitants should bear and suffer the deficiency fro rata. It also provides that if there should be a surplus of income before the falling in of any of the annuities, it should first go to make up earlier deficiencies in certain annuities, and any surplus then remaining should in the discretion of the trustees be retained against the event of like future deficiencies or distributed to the testator’s wife and children in equal shares. Further provision is made for the time when the amount of income and interest received from the trust fund, increased from any cause, shall be more than sufficient to pay the annuities: such income and interest shall as often as semiannually be divided and paid over to the testator’s wife, son, and two daughters during their joint lives, and to the survivors and survivor of them share and share alike. In 1917, on petition of the trustees under the will of George W. A. Williams for instructions as to their duties under the twenty-seventh article, they were instructed that the surplus income should be divided and paid over to the testator’s wife, son and daughter then living, share and share0alike, and that future payments of such surplus should be made to the same persons during their joint lives and to the survivors and survivor of them share and share alike. Joseph B. Williams was the last survivor. The decree of the Probate Court ordered that the surplus income of the trust created under the twenty-first article of the will, accruing after the death of Joseph B. Williams and not needed for the payment of outstanding annuities and the administration of the trust fund, be paid, one third to the administrator with the will annexed of the estate of the testator’s deceased wife; two ninths to the executor of the will of Georgianna Albree, the deceased daughter; two ninths to the executors of the will of the deceased daughter Helen L. Williams; and two ninths to the executor of the will of the testator’s deceased son, Joseph B. Williams.

[285]*285The testator made no provision for the disposition of surplus income between the date of the death of the last survivor of his wife and children and the termination of the trust. The contention that such income is to be paid to the executor of the survivor, the son of the testator, until the termination of the trust cannot prevail.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
167 N.E. 357, 268 Mass. 275, 1929 Mass. LEXIS 1368, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abbott-v-williams-mass-1929.