Crews v. Overbey

645 S.W.2d 388, 1983 Tenn. LEXIS 603
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 24, 1983
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 645 S.W.2d 388 (Crews v. Overbey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crews v. Overbey, 645 S.W.2d 388, 1983 Tenn. LEXIS 603 (Tenn. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

FONES, Chief Justice.

The major issue before this Court is whether a trust agreement, to be funded in [389]*389the future, created a present trust, and if not, was there any obstacle under the particular facts of this case, to the substitution of a second trust agreement, funded from its inception but in a different manner and with different beneficiary provisions.

I.

Although divorced in February 1971, the parties will be referred to as husband and wife. They were married in October 1960, and had two sons, one born in December 1961, and the other in June 1965. The final decree of divorce approved a property settlement agreement entered into by husband and wife on June 1, 1970. The agreement consisted of two separate documents that were attached as exhibits A and B to the final decree and were titled, “Property Settlement and Custody Agreement” and “Domestic Trust Agreement.”

In brief, the property settlement agreement gave custody of the children to wife, provided for two hundred and sixty-five dollars per month as child support plus payment of the house note, wife’s car note, all medical, dental and drug expenses, clothing-expenses for the children and payment of life insurance premiums on the life of husband and made wife irrevocable beneficiary of several policies and children others described therein. Some of those obligations were to cease upon wife’s remarriage.

Husband and his father were engaged in a business known as Nashville Suede and Leather Cleaners and wife had actively participated in the business. After providing for the support of wife and children as described above, the property settlement agreement provided that husband would fund a separate trust agreement, made an exhibit to the property settlement agreement, as.follows: (1) husband as fifty percent owner of real property at 2701 Granny White Pike, upon payment in full of a thirty-seven thousand dollar mortgage indebtedness held by Interreal Company, or upon sale of the real estate prior to payment of the mortgage, “the parties’ children will receive ten percent” ownership in the property or ten percent of the net proceeds if sold, in trust, however subject to the trust agreement; (2) to transfer to the trust annually, a sum equal to ten percent of the difference between ten thousand dollars and the total net profits of the cleaning business; and (3) upon remarriage of wife, husband would pay one hundred dollars per month to the trust, for the benefit of the children.

The domestic trust agreement dated the same day as the property settlement agreement named Morris Deaver as Trustee and recited as consideration one dollar and the mutual promises of the property settlement agreement. The trust agreement contained no reference whatever to the funding contingency involving the ten percent interest in the real property at 2701 Granny White Pike or the one hundred dollars per month payment in the event wife remarried. The only funding promise made by the grantor-husband in the trust agreement was to pay ten percent of the net profits of the cleaning business in excess of $10,000.

The two minor sons of the parties were named as beneficiaries. The trustee was directed to accumulate the income and invest it and the corpus. The only distributions were to be one-third as each beneficiary reached age twenty-five and the balance at age thirty. Wife was a contingent beneficiary. If both children should die before age thirty, she would receive one-half of the corpus and undistributed income.

It is uncontroverted that no property or money was ever transferred to the trustee of the June 1970 trust.

On May 1, 1974, husband and wife executed another “Domestic Trust Agreement.” It provided that the June 1, 1970 trust agreement was terminated and can-celled; that husband deposited with the trustee, Martha Read, one hundred dollars, “herewith,” and agreed to transfer to the trustee $3,900 on or before January 1, 1975, and the sum of $2,000 on or before January first of each year thereafter until the youngest son graduated from college. The 1974 trust authorized the trustee to make disbursements for the college expenses of the children, not to exceed four years of [390]*390college, and to make final distribution of any balance in the trust when the youngest son graduated from college. Wife was a contingent beneficiary of one-half of any trust assets if both sons died before the time for final distribution, as in the June 1970 trust.

On August 5,1974, an “Agreed Amended Final Decree” was entered in the Fourth Circuit Court of Davidson County wherein it was recited that due to a change of circumstances the parties wished to modify the property settlement agreement that was approved in the 1971 final decree. The amended decree then provided that the property settlement agreement was amended by reducing the child support from $265 per month to $200 per month and by substituting the new trust agreement for the one referred to in the 1971 final decree.

On January 23,1978, wife filed a petition seeking to set aside the amended final decree of August 1974, on the ground that the 1974 trust agreement was procured by fraud. She also sought an increase in child support payments and to have husband adjudged in contempt of Court. Wife alleged that husband induced her to enter into the 1974 trust agreement by misrepresenting the amount of his income and falsely representing that his business was failing. She asked that the 1974 trust be declared void ab initio because of husband’s false and fraudulent representations; that the 1971 trust be declared valid and that husband be required to fund it according to its terms, alleging that he then owed that trust in excess of $35,000. In addition, she alleged a change of circumstances that justified increased child support and that husband had defied unspecified orders of the Court which put him in contempt.

Husband answered denying all material allegations of the petition and the issues were referred to a master whose report was, after exceptions by both sides were heard, approved by the trial judge.

The master and the trial court found that the 1970 trust was an executory contract to be performed in the future; and was without consideration and subject to amendment; and that the 1974 trust was not procured by fraud or misrepresentation.

The Court of Appeals held that the 1970 trust was a valid existing trust; that its corpus consisted of the right to enforce the promise to fund the trust upon the happening of future contingencies. That Court also held that the 1974 amendment was ineffective to modify or revoke the 1970 trust because being an irrevocable trust, it could not be modified without the consent of the beneficiaries and because the minor children were not represented in any appropriate proceeding to amend the trust. However, the Court of Appeals concluded that both the 1974 and the 1970 trust were in existence, but that husband “obviously should not have to abide by the terms of both.” The intermediate court then suggested that any equitable relief from that situation should be left to a court of competent jurisdiction and that their decision was without prejudice to the rights of the parties to do so.

II.

This Court’s limited grant focused on the issue of whether the 1970 trust was in existence at the time the 1974 trust was created, so as to preclude the modification or revocation of the 1970 trust. There is no reported case in Tennessee on thjs issue.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
645 S.W.2d 388, 1983 Tenn. LEXIS 603, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crews-v-overbey-tenn-1983.