Amerige v. Attorney General

88 N.E.2d 126, 324 Mass. 648, 1949 Mass. LEXIS 737
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedSeptember 30, 1949
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 88 N.E.2d 126 (Amerige v. Attorney General) 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
Amerige v. Attorney General, 88 N.E.2d 126, 324 Mass. 648, 1949 Mass. LEXIS 737 (Mass. 1949).

Opinion

Spalding, J.

This is,a petition for instructions by the trustees under the will of Mary Elizabeth Williams, late of Hopkinton. The case was heard in the Probate Court on a.statement of agreed facts and was reserved and reported to this court without decision. G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 215, § 13.

The assets in the hands of the trustees, though treated as one fund, are derived from the following sources: property owned by Mary Elizabeth Williams, property which came to her from her father, James Leeds, and personal property and Massachusetts real estate from the estate of her uncle Timothy C. Leeds over which James Leeds had exercised a general testamentary power of appointment. It is with respect to the appointed property from Timothy Leeds’s estate that the principal questions for decision have arisen.

Timothy Leeds died a resident of New York May 27, 1864. His will and codicil1 were duly allowed in a Surrogate’s Court in New York and ancillary probate was granted here by the Probate Court for Suffolk County. By his will Timothy left one half of his property in trust for the benefit [651]*651of his brother James for life "... and upon the decease of the said James, then to hold the said half part to the use of such person or persons and upon such trusts and conditions and for such purposes as he shall by his last will direct and appoint.” The will contained an alternative disposition in the event James should die intestate. James Leeds and his children Herbert C. Leeds, Mary Elizabeth Williams and Annie F. Boardman were living at Timothy’s death but no child of Mary Elizabeth Williams had then been born.

By Timothy’s will James Leeds and Samuel E. Guild, both of Boston, were named trustees. James was also the executor. The will provided that in case of the death or resignation of either of the trustees the persons holding the majority interest of the trust could appoint a successor trustee "subject however to the approval of the person who shall then hold the office of Judge of Probate for the County of Suffolk” in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The executor’s inventory filed in the Surrogate’s Court in New York showed personal property in the amount of $384,700.52. The executor’s inventory filed in connection with the ancillary proceedings in Suffolk County disclosed Boston real estate valued at $50,000. The final account of James Leeds as executor and trustee of Timothy’s estate was settled by a decree of the Surrogate’s Court in New York on January 23, 1869. An accounting for the period October, 1868, to April, 1874, was filed in the Probate Court for Suffolk County.1 Thereafter accountings of the Timothy Leeds trust were filed in the Probate Court for Suffolk County until the property was "transferred to the trustees . . . [under the will of] James Leeds during the accounting period ending March 2, 1911, and mingled with the general trust” created in James’s will.

James Leeds died March 22, 1875, a resident of Massachusetts, and his will and three codicils were allowed by the Probate Court for Suffolk County. The first codicil provided in part as follows: “I direct and appoint that the [652]*652property which my brother Timothy C. Leeds empowered me by his last will and testament, shall be considered and held, in all respects, as part of my own property, and that, when I have bequeathed or devised a proportion or the residue of my estate, the estate of my brother, over which I have the power of appointment, shall be considered and devised and bequeathed as if they were a part of my estates.” By the eighth article of his will James left one third of his estate to his trustees for the benefit of his daughter Mary Elizabeth Williams for life and upon her death “to hold the said estates real and personal to the uses of such person or persons as she shall by her last will or any instrument in the nature of one direct and appoint . . . and if she shall die intestate then to hold the said fund to the use of her children and the issue of any deceased children taking by representation.” There were gifts over “upon default of such will, children and issue.”

At his death James was survived by the following persons: his widow, who died in 1916, his son Herbert, two daughters, Annie Fearing Boardman and Mary Elizabeth Williams, and two grandchildren, Edward Shirley Goddard and Mary Elizabeth Goddard, who were the children of Mary Elizabeth Williams and were born subsequent to the death of Timothy.

Mary Elizabeth Williams died a resident of Massachusetts February 10, 1925, leaving no spouse and survived by her children Edward Shirley and Mary Elizabeth Goddard. She left a will, the seventh article of which provides in part as follows: “My said daughter Mary E. Goddard, and my said son Edward Shirley Goddard, were both born prior to the decease of my father, James Leeds late of Boston, Massachusetts, under whose will I have a power of appointment. All the rest, residue and remainder of my property, of every name and nature, real and personal, and any property over which I have the power of appointment by will, or otherwise, I give, devise and bequeath to the trustees ... [blamed herein and their successors] but in trust nevertheless, for the following purposes, namely:” to divide the residue into two equal shares and to hold one for each child [653]*653during his or her life, and then to his or her issue, but in default of such issue, to hold the whole for the Ufe of the survivor, and upon the death of the survivor to his or her issue, but if on the death of the survivor no issue of either be surviving, then to pay over the property discharged of all trusts in equal shares to the following charities: Rotch’s Travelling Scholarship, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Animal Rescue League. Under the terms of the seventh article, as modified by a codicil, the trustees were empowered to pay to each child out of principal a sum not in excess of $10,000.

During the Ufetime of Mary Elizabeth Goddard the income of her share of the trust created by the seventh article of her mother’s will was paid to her and she also received payments out of principal amounting to $7,000. She died a resident of Boston, May 16, 1940, without issue, leaving a will and codicil.1

The trustees under the will of Mary Elizabeth Williams paid one half of the income of the trust to Edward Shirley Goddard until the death of Mary Elizabeth Goddard, and thereafter, until September 30, 1947, he received the entire income thereof. Since that date he has received one half of the income and the remaining income has been held by the trustees pending the outcome of the present proceeding. The trustees have paid to Edward, who is still living, sums out of principal amounting to $10,000.

[654]

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Bluebook (online)
88 N.E.2d 126, 324 Mass. 648, 1949 Mass. LEXIS 737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/amerige-v-attorney-general-mass-1949.