Castner Estate

194 A.2d 330, 412 Pa. 232, 17 A.L.R. 3d 222, 1963 Pa. LEXIS 400
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 11, 1963
DocketAppeal, No. 195
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 194 A.2d 330 (Castner Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Castner Estate, 194 A.2d 330, 412 Pa. 232, 17 A.L.R. 3d 222, 1963 Pa. LEXIS 400 (Pa. 1963).

Opinions

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Benjamin R. Jones,

[234]*234The issue on this appeal is whether income, unlawfully accumulated under the Act of 1853 (Act),1 is distributable to the residuary legatees under the instant will (grandchildren et al.) or to testator’s next-of-kin under the intestate laws (testator’s three children and the personal representatives of his two deceased children).

Lewis M. Castner (testator) died January 1, 1932, survived by his wife and five children. Under his will, he gave the “rest, residue and remainder” of his estate to the First National Bank of Williamsport (trustee) in trust for the following purposes: (1) to distribute from the “net income” of the “residuary estate” certain specific sums of money, annually, to his wife, three of his children and his sister during their lives; (2) on the wife’s death or remarriage, her share of the income was to be proportionately divided among the other three named life beneficiaries, excluding his sister; (3) on the death of “any other” beneficiary, the share of the income of such beneficiary was to go to his or her issue, and, in default of such issue, to the testator’s remaining children in proportion to the specific amounts of income given such children under the trust; (4) if the residuary estate should yield “more income than necessary to pay the amounts allowed [his] beneficiaries under [the] trust,” the “excess” was to be reinvested and “held to make up any prior or subsequent shortage in such payments, and if not required for that purpose shall be distributed at the termination of the trust in the same manner as the corpus of the trust funds”; (5) the trust was to continue “during the lives of [testator’s] wife and [his] children above named, and thereafter until [his] youngest grandchild living at the time of [his] death, arrives at the age of twenty-one (21) years”; (6) upon [235]*235the termination of the trust, the trustee was to distribute the “whole of [his] residuary estate, including undistributed income thereof, among all [his] grandchildren, in equal shares, the share of any deceased grandchild to be paid to his or her issue, if any, otherwise to lapse.”

On October 28, 1960, the trustee filed its first and partial account in the Orphans’ Court of Lycoming County and requested a determination of the question of the distribution of the balance of accumulated income in its hands, then amounting to $59,677.27. The matter was referred to an auditor. Being of the opinion that the residuary legatees had “an immediate right of possession of the remainder interest if the prior estates were presently terminated”, that the “unlawful accumulations represented] a part of the estate that is no longer affected by the life estates” and that, as to the accumulated income, the trust had terminated, the auditor concluded that the balance of the accumulated income should be distributed to the residuary legatees.

The Orphans’ Court of Lycoming County held that the residuary legatees did not have such a vested interest as took effect in immediate possession, that, as to the accumulated income, the testator died intestate and that the testator’s next of kin2 under the intestate laws were entitled to distribution of the accumulated income. From that decree this appeal was taken.

All parties agree that the accumulation of income under the provisions of this will violates Section 9 of the Act and our sole inquiry is to whom such illegally accumulated income should now be distributed. Section 9 provides that income unlawfully accumulated “shall go to and be received by such person or per[236]*236sons as would have been entitled thereto if such accumulation had not been directed. . . .” “The inquiry, therefore, must, in the first instance, always be, who, under the provisions of the will, as fairly interpreted, such persons are:” Martin’s Estate, 185 Pa. 51, 53, 39 Atl. 841.

The residuary legatees contend that, since by the provisions of the will the life beneficiaries are restricted and limited to the specific amounts of the net income which they were bequeathed, as to any surplus income, i.e., income accumulated over the years, only the residuary legatees, whose interest in the accumulated income becomes accelerated as to time of taking, are entitled to a distribution.3 The next of kin contend that neither the life beneficiaries nor the residuary legatees can take, the latter because they lack an immediate interest in possession and the illegal provisions as to accumulations are part of the residuary clause of the will and, therefore, as to the accumulated income, an intestacy occurred.4

In this area of the law, White’s Estate, 8 Dist. 33, written by the very able Judge Penkose, has become recognized as a landmark case.5 In White’s Es[237]*237tate, the following rule was enunciated: “Accumulation is forbidden by the act no less where it results by indirection than where it is expressly ordered; the striking down of the illegal accumulation leaves the will as if it had been silent on the subject, and future gifts are not accelerated; if the accumulation relates to a vested interest taking effect in possession, the released income goes at once to the beneficiary [of that interest but] if [the accumulation relates] to an interest not vested in possession, the income goes to the residuary legatee or devisee, unless the residuary estate itself be the subject of the provision, in which case the income goes under the intestate laws to the next of kin or heirs.” This rule has been generally accepted as a reliable guide in determining the appropriate disposition of accumulated income which, by reason of a violation of the Act, has become released or liberated income.

Maris’s Estate, 301 Pa. 20, 151 Atl. 577 is an example of a situation falling within the first part of this rule. In Maris’s Estate the widow by the terms of the will was given during her life the “net income” absolutely; she thereby became entitled to all the income arising from the corpus of the trust and became vested with an equitable life interest in the income-producing corpus which, upon the death of the testator, took effect in immediate possession; under such circumstances, the widow became entitled to distribution of any income unlawfully accumulated. By way of contrast, the life beneficiaries in the case at bar acquired an interest in the net income only to the extent of the specific amounts of income provided for them and they totally lack any interest in any surplus income over and above the specified amounts; the interest of the residuary legatees in the corpus and the accumulat[238]*238ed income,6 even though such interest be considered vested,7 takes effect in possession and enjoyment only upon the happening of a future event, i.e., the death of all the life beneficiaries and the arrival at age 21 of the youngest grandchild. Neither the life beneficiaries nor the residuary legatees have any interest which takes effect in immediate possession such as would bring them within the first part of the rule and thus entitle them to a distribution of the released income.

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Bluebook (online)
194 A.2d 330, 412 Pa. 232, 17 A.L.R. 3d 222, 1963 Pa. LEXIS 400, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castner-estate-pa-1963.