Bancroft v. Maine State Sanatorium Ass'n

109 A. 585, 119 Me. 56, 1920 Me. LEXIS 47
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedMarch 26, 1920
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 109 A. 585 (Bancroft v. Maine State Sanatorium Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bancroft v. Maine State Sanatorium Ass'n, 109 A. 585, 119 Me. 56, 1920 Me. LEXIS 47 (Me. 1920).

Opinion

Cornish, C. J.

Eleazer D. Chamberlin a wealthy citizen of Newton, Massachusetts, on February 28, 1910, placed in the hands of Charles O. Bancroft, Charles H. Payson and Franklin C. Payson, all [59]*59of Portland, Maine, a fund of two hundred thousand dollars in trust for the uses and purposes and subject to the conditions, limitations and stipulations expressed in a certain declaration of trust of that date, signed by said trustees.

The uses and purposes were as follows: “To invest and reinvest said fund in interest bearing securities and property and to pay over the net income thereof semi-annually, and oftenor if the trustees for the time being so determine, to the treasurer for the time being of the Maine State Sanatorium Association, a corporation located at Hebron in the State of Maine, for the period of forty years from the date hereof, and then to pay over the principal comprising said fund to the said Maine State Sanatorium Association freed from all trusts. Said payments of income and principal, however, are subject to the conditions, limitations and stipulations herein stated and set forth.”

Among the conditions, limitations and stipulations set forth in the declaration of trust are the following:

“Third: — Said trust and fund shall be known as the ‘E. D. Chamberlin Endowment Fund,’ and the principal of said fund shall always be kept intact and no part of said principal shall be expended or used for the purposes of said Sanatorium, and no loan of any part of said fund shall ever be made to said Sanatorium Association.”

“Fourth: — All income paid over to or for the benefit of said Sanatorium Association shall be used by it solely for the annual running expenses of said Sanatorium Association for the cure and prevention of tuberculosis at Hebron in its present location, and no part of said income shall be used for construction purposes, or for the purchase of real estate, furnishings, for interest, or for any other purpose whatever except that above stated.”

“Eighth: — And in compliance with the express direction of said Eleazer D. Chamberlin, the donor of this fund, no part of said income or of said principal fund shall be paid over to or for the benefit of said Maine State Sanatorium Association after October l, 1911, except as hereinafter provided unless said Maine State Sanatorium Association shall on said date be wholly and absolutely free from debt of every kind, which it has not sufficient cash in hand or bills receivable from solvent persons or corporations to fully off-set, and no part of said income or of said principal shall be paid over to or for the benefit of said Sanatorium Association after October first of each alternate year after 1911 except as hereinafter provided, unless said [60]*60Sanatorium Association shall on said date be wholly and absolutely free from debt of every kind, which it has not sufficient cash in hand or bills receivable from solvent persons or corporations to fully off-set, and so on until said fund has been paid over to said Sanatorium Association as above provided at the end of the said forty (40) year period, or said fund has been paid over as hereinafter provided.”

“Ninth: — The trustees hereunder for the time being shall satisfy themselves that no such indebtedness exists on the dates above mentioned, in any way or manner which seems best and conclusive to them or they may accept the sworn statements of the officers of said Sanatorium Association of its financial condition as true; but no income from said fund or no part of the principal of said fund shall be paid to said Sanatorium Association unless the trustees of said fund for the time being.are unanimously of the opinion that upon the dates above specified no indebtedness against said Sanatorium Association exists as outstanding which it has not sufficient cash in hand or bills receivable from solvent persons or corporations to fully off-set.”

“Tenth: — If at any of the times above mentioned, the trustees for the time being are of the opinion that the said Sanatorium Association is indebted in sums for which it has not cash in hand or bills receivable due from solvent persons or corporations to off-set the same, said trustees shall give notice in writing to said Sanatorium Association of said opinion, and in case that within three (3) months thereafter, said indebtedness is not paid and cancelled and satisfactory evidence thereof submitted to said trustees in writing by said Sanatorium Association, then said principal fund and any accumulations thereof shall forthwith be paid over to said donor, Eleazer D. Chamberlin, if living, and if not living, said fund and its accumulations shall be paid over in equal shares to Theodore Chamberlin of Concord, Massachusetts, nephew of said Eleazer D. Chamberlin, and Walter S. Fox of Boston, Massachusetts, or to their then heirs at law, said heirs at law taking by right of representation, for their own use, freed from all trusts. Said Sanatorium Association shall be entitled to receive said payments of income or principal if said trustees are satisfied that all said indebtedness has been paid or cancelled within said three (3) months’ period.”

“Eleventh: — The conclusions of the trustees for the time being on all the foregoing matters shall be final and binding upon all parties interested in said trust fund, but said trustees are authorized in case [61]*61of doubt as to their duties, or rights, or the rights of the beneficiaries to petition the Courts for instructions and further orders.”

The Maine State Sanatorium Association, the beneficiary under this declaration of trust, was a corporation organized under the general laws of this State on December 26, 1900, its purposes being, as the certificate of organization recites: “to establish and maintain a public institution or institutions for the isolation, treatment and cure of persons affected with pulmonary disease, and to exert its influence toward the lessening of the prevalence of tuberculosis.” The Association had established such an institution at Hebron, had acquired a large amount of property both real and personal, and was in active and full operation when this trust gift was made by Mr. Chamberlin.

The trustees named in this trust agreement entered upon the discharge of their duties immediately after its execution, received and managed the trust funds and paid over the income to the treasurer of the Association until October, 1915, when the Association conveyed all its property, real and personal, to the State of Maine, together with all its right, title and interest in the Chamberlin Endowment Fund, and the State of Maine has continued to „ maintain the Sanatorium since that time under the provisions of Public Laws, 1915, Chap. 351, now R. S., (1916), Chap. 146. After this transfer to and assumption of management by the State, the trustees of the Chamberlin fund made no further payment of income to the Sanatorium except the sum of §613.69 on October 14, 1915, representing coupons matured and paid on or prior to October 11, 1915, together with interest on bank balance. The fund with its accumulated income amounts now to more than two hundred and thirty thousand dollars.

Mr. Chamberlin died at Boston, Massachusetts, testate on August 7, 1914. Walter H. Roberts of Harvard, Massachusetts, was duly appointed sole executor in Maine on September 26, 1917, and Walter H. Roberts and Walter S. Fox were appointed trustees under the will in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

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Bluebook (online)
109 A. 585, 119 Me. 56, 1920 Me. LEXIS 47, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bancroft-v-maine-state-sanatorium-assn-me-1920.