Clark v. Peck's Exrs.

65 A. 14, 79 Vt. 275, 1906 Vt. LEXIS 125
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedNovember 20, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 65 A. 14 (Clark v. Peck's Exrs.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. Peck's Exrs., 65 A. 14, 79 Vt. 275, 1906 Vt. LEXIS 125 (Vt. 1906).

Opinion

Miles, J.

This is a suit in chancery. The question before this Court is raised by demurrer to the bill, and the ground of the demurrer is, that the court of chancery has no jurisdiction.

The allegations of the bill, briefly stated, are as follows: that Harriet C. Peck of Burlington, Vt., died on or about December 25, 1903, leaving a husband, the defendant, Edward W. Peck, but no' children surviving her; that she also left a will which was duly proved, allowed and established in the probate court for the district of Chittenden, on the first day of February, 1904, and letters testamentary thereon issued unto Gardner S. Wainwright and Sayles Nichols, nominated in the will as executors thereof, who accepted the appointment, filed a bond thereunder and duly qualified as required by law; that [279]*279Jed P. Clark, one of the orators, at the date of the death of Harriet C., was poor and without means of support and a re-, cipient from her of an allowance of fifty dollars per month paid to him regularly; that Edward W., at the time of the death of Harriet C., was wholly without property of his own; that since her death Edward W., as the plaintiffs believe, has used and was still using at the time the bill was brought, to wit, January 4, 1905, large sums of the principal of her estate; that .she died owning real and personal property worth two hundred thousand dollars; that this property is now in the possession of Edward W. who intends to keep the same, as the plaintiffs believe, and use it for his own personal benefit and to sell and transfer the notes, stocks and bonds belonging to this estate as he sees fit; that some of the specific provisions of this will are as follows:

“I give to my beloved husband, Edward W. Peck, the possession, management, use, control and income of all my estate, real and personal, during his natural life, subject to the payment of the annuities hereinafter provided.”-
“It is my will that the annuities now paid and given by me be continued after my decease, out of my estate, and payable in the same manner, and I hereby give the same as follows: To Joseph E. Clark, Dora A. Odlin, -William H. Clark and Helen A. Clark, children of my brother, Jed P. Clark, I give an annuity of three hundred dollars each, to be paid to each in quarterly instalments during their respective lives,” etc.
“And in case of the death of any of said annuitants leaving issue, it is my will that the annuity theretofore paid to such deceased person, be paid to such issue during life, but in case of such death without issue, then the annuity theretofore paid to such person, shall be continued and paid in equal parts to the survivor or survivors of them. It is -my will that the [280]*280residue of my property not herein otherwise disposed of, including the residue as it will be after the termination of such annuities, be divided into three equal parts, two parts to be placed in the hands of my executors as trustees to be by them held, managed and controlled and the net income thereof to be paid as follows: Six hundred. dollars thereof annually in monthly instalments to my brother Jed P. Clark during his natural life, the balance of the income of said two parts shall be by said trustees applied to the support, care and maintenance of the family of my said brother and this shall be so done by said trustees that said family shall derive the direct and whole benefit thereof.”

The bill further alleges, in substance, that Edward W. claims by virtue of the provisions of the will, that he has the right not only to the use of the entire property during his life time, but that, in case the income from that property is not sufficient for his support, he has the right to use the principal, ■or a part of it, for that purpose; that the executors, Wainwright and Nichols, refuse and neglect to take possession of the estate, and permit Edward W. to control, manage and appropriate the same to his own use, as the plaintiffs believe, and to waste and squander the same to the irreparable loss to the plaintiffs, ánd that' said Wainwright and Nichols are conspiring with Edward W., that he may appropriate to his own use so much of the estate as he may choose to use for his own personal benefit; that Wainwright and Nichols refuse farther to proceed with their duties as executors' and assert that Edward W. has the right under and by virtue of the will to manage and control said property; that the only bond filed by Wainwright and Nichols is for the sum of two thousand dollars and is so drawn that no liability whatever attaches by virtue thereof; that Edward W. has made a distribution of certain [281]*281portions of the estate and has also given away a part and that after such acts, distribution and gifts, on December 12, 1904, he filed in the probate court his waiver .of the provisions of the will and asserts his right to such portion of the estate as by law he is entitled to receive; that Edward W. before filing his waiver, to wit, on the 23rd day of September, 1904, filed in the probate court his petition for an extension of time in which he might waive the provisions of the will and take his statutory rights; that notice thereof was not given to all the parties interested, but'was given to one of the plaintiffs, William Odlin, who appeared and objected to the extension of time as prayed for, but such extension was granted, to which said Odlin prayed for an appeal, but the same was refused on the ground that the action of the probate court-in matters of that kin'd was not subject to appeal. The extension of time was made within the eight months prescribed by law in which the husband or wife may waive the provisions of the other’s will and the waiver was within the time fixed by the probate court, in which Edward W. was allowed to make his election.

The bill further alleges that Edward W. Peck by his acts and claims made respecting the will, had debarred himself from waiving such will; that he has ever refused to turn over to Wainwright and Nichols any of the property belonging to the estate; that, on the 4th day of February, 1905, Wainwright and Nichols filed in the probate court their accounts and inventory, in which they charged themselves with certain property of the estate, specifically itemized, amounting to one hundred and fifty-five thousand four hundred and thirty-three dollars and twenty cents, and with receipts of property coming to them from various sources, and crediting themselves with property on hand at that date and money paid out in the management and control of this estate, in all amounting to one hundred and [282]*282fifty-five thousand four hundred and forty-eight dollars and twenty cents; that the account also showed an itemized statement of the income of the estate since the decease of Harriet C. to the 4th day of February, 1905, amounting to seven thousand and twenty-nine dollars; that the account contained an itemized statement of the money paid on annuities, and advanced to Edward W. and paid out on general expenses by the executors, from the date of their appointment to the 4th dayo of February, 1905.

The bill contains no statement that the estate consisted of any property, except what is included in the inventory amounting to one hundred and fifty-five thousand four hundred and thirty-three dollars and twenty cents, except the allegations of the plaintiffs above stated, made on information and belief, that Harriet C. died owning property exceeding the value of two hundred thousand dollars. Said bill prayed:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
65 A. 14, 79 Vt. 275, 1906 Vt. LEXIS 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-pecks-exrs-vt-1906.