Brown v. Sperry

181 So. 734, 182 Miss. 488, 1938 Miss. LEXIS 185
Mississippi Supreme Court·Decided June 6, 1938·No. No. 33255.·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Smith, C. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

On January 9, 1933, the will of G-. A. Sperry, deceased, was probated, reading as follows:

*494 “I hereby give and bequeath to my good wife, Aliph Elnora, all of the property, real, personal and mixed, of which I shall die seized and possessed, to be held in trust for and during her natural life by my executor for her benefit upon the following terms and conditions, that is to say: my executor shall take possession of all of said property, real, personal and mixed, of which I shall die seized and possessed and give to her annually during her lifetime all of the net income from said property, and -at her death, all property then on hand and in the control and possession of my said executor is hereby bequeathed to my four sisters, Mrs. C. "W. Brown, Minter City, Mississippi, Mrs. G-. C. Pruitt, Minter City, Mississippi, Mrs. Tom Buntin, Jackson, Tennessee, and Mrs. Neal Anderson, Jackson, Tennessee, and to the children living at that time of my deceased sister, Mrs. G. "W. Johnson, formerly of Lake "Wilson, Minnesota, said four sisters to each have a one-fifth interest and the children then living of my said deceased sister to have a one-fifth interest.
“I hereby appoint my good friend, "W. D. Garner, in whom I have every confidence, my executor without bond.”

Garner qualified as executor and thereafter filed a bill of complaint in the court below against Mrs. Sperry, seeking thereby to recover from Mrs. Sperry $3360.00 paid by him as executor on a note probated against Sperry’s estate, which he said was in fact owed not by Sperry but by his widow, Mrs. A. E. Sperry, and the amount of a balance appearing due to G. A. Sperry by Mrs. A. E. Sperry on Mrs. Sperry’s books of account, kept in a business owned and operated by her but conducted by G. A. Sperry as her general agent.

On an appeal from a decree dismissing this bill, reported as Garner v. Sperry, 173 Miss. 11,161 So. 703, that decree was reversed, the court holding that a recovery should be permitted on the note and for the amount of *495 credit to Sperry appearing on Mrs. Sperry’s books of account “less any items shown by competent evidence to have been improperly credited thereon and less items properly chargeable thereto but not appearing thereon among which the money paid on Sperry’s debt to Minor [the note héreinbefore mentioned], assumed by the appellee, should not be included. ’ ’

On the return of the case to the court below it was again tried on the same evidence introduced on the first trial, with some additional evidence. The pleadings now presented by the record will not be set out in full, but .the questions presented thereby and decided will hereinafter appear. There is a direct appeal by Provine and the remaindermen, and a cross-appeal by Mrs. Sperry.

Garner died; B. B. Provine was appointed administrator de bonis non of Sperry’s estate and proceeded with the suit hereinbefore referred to begun by Garner. In addition to Mrs. Sperry and Provine the remaindermen under Sperry’s will are parties hereto. (1) The court below awarded Provine a recovery for the $3360.00 paid by Garner on the note probated against Sperry’s estate, in accordance with the opinion rendered herein on the former appeal, and (2) for $4445.95 being, according to the decree, the true amount due, on the evidence, by Mrs. Sperry to G. A. Sperry on his open account appearing on Mrs. Sperry’s books. Provine was authorized by the decree to charge both of these items against any income in or coming into his hands which under Sperry’s will should be paid to Mrs. Sperry.

The first of these items is, of course, correct, and on the evidence we are unable to say that the court below erred in fixing the amount due by Mrs. Sperry on G. A. Sperry’s open account appearing on her books. No error was committed in authorizing Provine to charge these two items against Mrs. Sperry’s income from the trust estate. The will does not create a spendthrift trust; nor in any way attempt to remove the income of the trust *496 estate from liability for the debts of the life beneficiary thereof. "If a beneficiary is under a liability to the trustee as such, his interest in the trust estate is subject to a charge for the amount of his liability. ’ ’ 1 Restatement Trusts, sec. 251. The $3360.00 item is undoubtedly within this rule. Whether the $4445.95 item is also within this rule depends on whether the testator ’s will indicates an intention to exclude it therefrom. "Where a testator leaves his property to his executor in trust and a beneficiary of the trust is indebted to the testator, the interest of the beneficiary in the trust estate is subject to a charge for the amount of his indebtedness, unless the testator manifested an intention to discharge the debt, or manifested an intention that the beneficiary should be entitled to enjoy his interest even though he should fail to pay his indebtedness.” 1 Restatement, Trusts, sec. 251, comment b.

Counsel for the appellee say that the testator here manifested such an intention, for the reason that he devised and bequeathed all his property to Mrs. Sperry, and although he directed it to be held in trust during her lifetime he also directed the trustee to "give her annually during her lifetime all of the net income from said property.” By the use of the word "all” they say the testator meant to prohibit the charge of any indebtedness due him by Mrs. Sperry to this income, that if the debt so due by her is charged against the income the testator’s intention that she should receive all the income would be thwarted. The fallacy in this argument is this: When the income is applied to the payment of a debt due by the beneficiary to the trustee the beneficiary is not thereby deprived of the benefit of the income any more than would be the case if the income was paid to the beneficiary and then applied by him to the payment of the debt in discharge of his obligations so to do. If the will had provided not that all the income should be paid the beneficiary without any restrictions thereon, but that suffi *497 cient thereof should be paid her for her support and maintenance, a different question would arise, as to which we express no opinion.

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Brown v. Sperry, 181 So. 734, 182 Miss. 488, 1938 Miss. LEXIS 185 (Mich. 1938).

181 So. 734 (Brown v. Sperry) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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