Brooks v. Raynolds

59 F. 923, 8 Ohio F. Dec. 78, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2406
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedDecember 24, 1893
DocketNo. 110
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 59 F. 923 (Brooks v. Raynolds) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brooks v. Raynolds, 59 F. 923, 8 Ohio F. Dec. 78, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2406 (6th Cir. 1893).

Opinions

After stating the facts, the opinion of the court was delivered by

LURTON, Circuit Judge:

The character of the interest which the judgment debtor, Cassius Hanna, has in the trust founded by his father, depends upon the true construction of his will. That he has no interest whatever in the corpus of the estate is conceded. Whatever interest he has is limited to the one-half of the income of the fund devised to the executor, Brooks. The other half of the income is wholly devoted to the children of the testator’s deceased daughter, Arrial. Whether Arrial’s children take vested interests in their half of the income, or merely a support and maintenance out of the income, is wholly unimportant. The trusts in behalf of Cassius and the children of Arrial are distinct. The one in no way depends upon the other. The terms of the will creating them are not identical. The conditions surrounding the testator when he made his will, calculated to aid in the interpretation of his intent as to Cassius, were so different from those bearing upon his purpose as to the children of Arrial, that the character of the one trust would not materially aid in the interpretation of the other. Two views are presented by the learned counsel for the creditor as to the true construction of so much of the will as relates to the interest of Cassius in the income:

The first is that raised by the error assigned by complainant, Raynolds, on his cross appeal, to wit, that the interest of Cassius extends to the whole of one-half of the income, and not one-fourth, as ruled by the circuit court. This position excludes the “family” of Cassius from all status as beneficiaries. Such a construction would operate to make for the testator a new will. “Cassius and his family” are distinctly made the beneficiaries as to one-half of the income. There is just as much authority for excluding Cassius as a beneficiary as there is for excluding those who are designated as “his family.” This is not a bequest to Cassius for the benefit of his family, or to him as a parent for the purpose of educating and maintaining his children. It does not fall within the principle of Hadow v. Hadow, 9 Sim. 438, or Browne v. Paull, 1 Sim. (N. S.) 92. Those cases involved legacies to a parent for the purpose of maintaining and educating children. They were decided upon the ground, as stated by the vice chancellor in Browne v. Paull, "“that when, during the minority of a child, the interest of such child’s legacy is directed to be paid to the parent, to be applied for or towards its maintenance, there the direction as to the application is a mere charge for the benefit on what is substantially a gift to the parent subject to such charge.” See, also, Perry, Trusts, §§ 117, 118, and cases cited.

In those cases the parent was held bound to furnish reasonable [929]*929maintenance and support, but was held entitled to any surplus of Income. Neither furnishes the slightest authority for supposing that, even in regard to trusts of that kind, the parent could have appropriated, or, a fortiori, a creditor of the parent, the fund to his own use and purpose's, without maintaining the children. The wife and children could, in equity, enforce its proper appropriation. Chase v. Chase, 2 Allen, 101; Raikes v. Ward, 1 Hare, 445.

In this case we are dealing with a devise, not to Cassius, charged with a trust, but to the defendant Brooks, who is to apply .and expend the income for the benefit of “Cassius and his family.” The intent of the testator with respect to the children of the “family” is most plainly impressed as a trust, to be executed by the trustee, by the clause of the fourth item where, in regard to the expenditure of the income, the testator declares that “in the expenditure1 of income for the benefit; of my son, Cassius, and his family, as well as for the children of my daughter, Arrial, I desire my executor to have in view the, maintenance and education of my grandchildren on a scale comporting with their condition and rank in life.”

The power, at the discretion of the executor, to pay over the income in cash to Cassius, would, if exercised, have made him a snbtrusiee, and accountable certainly for the maintenance and support of the others who composed his family. That power has, however, never been exercised. The discretion of the executor as to whether he will do so, or himself expend the fund, is not subject to judicial control.

But it, has been pressed upon us that the second item of the codicil, in express terms, declares that this income is to be expended for the “benefit of Cassius only,” and that this change was made, “as announced by the testator himself, to settle definitely what might otherwise be a ground of dispute between beneficiaries.” If the whole of the iiem is read together, it will be most apparent that the testator was dealing with the question as to the dural ion of the scheme for the distribution and expenditure of the annual income. Item 8 of the will had directed that the one-half of the net income of the estate should “be expended by my said executor for the benefit of my son, Cassius, and his family, so long- as he (Cassius) shall live.” By item 9 of the will the executor is directed to continue to control and manage the estate, and distribute the income as before directed, “until the youngest child of Arrial then living shall come of age,” when he is directed to dividí? and distribute the whole of the estate among the grandchildren of the testator, share and share alike, etc. The same clause gave to the executor the power to postpone this division “if, in Ms opinion,” the welfare of Ms son, Cassius, or of Ms grandchildren, should be thereby promoted, until such time as he should think “prudent,” “but in no event until then.”

By another provision of the same item a distribution might be hastened by advancing to any grandchild a part, or the whole, of the share to which such grandchild should be enfilled, provided such advancement shoxild be deemed suitable and pmdent io the executor, and subject to the further provision that the final dis[930]*930tribution should not be hastened so as to occur before the death of the testator’s widow, nor advancements made to individual grandchildren during her life which would impair or affect the annuity provided for the widow. Thus, by item 9, the final distribution of the estate might be made, in the discretion of the executor, at any time after the death of the widow, or at the arrival at age of the youngest daughter of Arrial, or any time thereafter, if the executor saw fit to postpone it; but by item 3 of tibíe codicil a final distribution was required at the death of Cassius, provided the youngest child of Arrial was then of age.

When such final distribution should occur it would, of course, terminate the trust for the benefit of “Cassius and his family” out of the income. This distribution might occur before the death of Cassms. Yet, by item 8 the income was to be distributed so long as Gassius should live. This was a contradiction. This is the doubt settled by item 2 of the codicil.

To make clear the duration of this expenditure for the benefit of Cassius and his family, the testator, by the codicil, declared that '“in order to settle definitely, and make forever free from dispute, that portion of item' eight (8) of my said last will which relates to the division and distribution of the annual net income of my estate, I hereby declare it to be my wish and will,.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
59 F. 923, 8 Ohio F. Dec. 78, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2406, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brooks-v-raynolds-ca6-1893.