Danforth v. City of Oshkosh

97 N.W. 258, 119 Wis. 262, 1903 Wisc. LEXIS 154
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 20, 1903
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 97 N.W. 258 (Danforth v. City of Oshkosh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Danforth v. City of Oshkosh, 97 N.W. 258, 119 Wis. 262, 1903 Wisc. LEXIS 154 (Wis. 1903).

Opinions

Dodge, J.

The testatrix, Abby S. Harris, by her will,, now before us, has earned the right that her name be writ large among those who loved their fellowmen, and has sought to give her charity practical efficacy in a most wise and admirable field and generous form. Much as we must admire-such efforts to promote the welfare of her fellows, we are-nevertheless burdened with the duty of testing the scheme-adopted by the testatrix by the rules and limitations which the legislature has deemed wise to impose for the protection of the welfare of the community in other directions.

The appellants contend that the scheme involves such suspension of the power of alienation as is forbidden by sec.. [267]*2672039, Stats. 1898, and, by sec. 2038, Id., renders void the estate attempted to be conferred upon the city of Oshkosh. Further, they contend that, even if such forbidden perpetuity is created only as to the homestead, yet that is sufficient to defeat the title to all the property, because the use of the rest is only authorized for the erection and maintenance of a library upon the homestead premises as a site. To escape this objection and sustain the devise, we are strongly pressed to hold that our statute against perpetuities has no application to grants for charitable purposes. This subject would at first glance appear to have been set at'rest by the decisions in De Wolf v. Lawson, 61 Wis. 469, 21 N. W. 615, and Beurhaus v. Cole, 94 Wis. 617, 69 N. W. 986, made by consensus of all members of the court, wherein it was held that a grant of realty for charitable uses was void because it suspended the power of alienation to the extent prohibited by sec. 2039, Stats. 1898. Counsel, however, urge that expressions found in the opinion in Harrington v. Pier, 105 Wis. 485, 82 N. W. 345, invite the profession to believe that the question is considered still an open one. Whether that language, used as it was without mention of the Cole Oase — indeed, in apparent oversight of the decision of the question in both the former cases — could have been intended to suggest a doubt as to their authority, we must confess that upon careful inspection it may warrant some measure of uncertainty among the profession upon this very important subject. This leads us to the view that, although affirmance of the judgment might result upon other grounds, we ought to remove any uncertainty arising from the cited remarks in the Harrington Case, and declare the view of the court, since the question is squarely presented and argued with much vigor and learning. Of course, what was said in that case had no relation to anything in fact decided, did not in any wise lead to nor support the conclusion reached by the court. It therefore cannot be given the weight of authoritative precedent, or war[268]*268rant hesitation in following the settled rule of decision, if we find such exists.

The question is one purely of statutory construction. However fully members of this court may believe in a policy which would permit perpetuities in charitable grants, we should transcend our rightful powers should we attempt to establish or enforce such a policy in defiance of legislative declaration of a different one. We may therefore dismiss from present consideration those decisions of courts elsewhere, acting under different statutory conditions, in support of either a liberal or a restrictive policy. Our original statute on the subject (secs. 14, 15, ch. 56, N. S. 1849) was taken in hcec verba from New York, and declared:

“Sec. 14. Every future estate shall be void in its creation, which shall suspend the absolute power of alienation for a longer period than is prescribed in this chapter; such power of alienation is suspended, when there are no persons in being, by whom an absolute fee in possession can be conveyed.
“Sec. 15. The absolute power of alienation shall not be suspended, by any limitation or condition whatever, for a longer period than during the continuance of two lives in being at the creation of the estate, except in the single case mentioned' in the next section.”

In this there is no express exception of grants to charitable uses. The words are general, and only in defiance of their literal force could any such exception be allowed. At the time.they wore adopted from New York, no court of last resort had placed any qualification upon their literal meaning. True, an assistant vice chancellor (Sandford) had expressed an opinion that charities were intended to be excepted (Shotwell v. Mott, 2 Sandf. Ch. 46), but he, of course, spoke without final authority, subject to review by higher courts. The literal efficacy of this statute apparently was neither questioned nor affirmed in Wisconsin until Ruth v. Oberbrunner, 40 Wis. 238, in 1876, in which it was decided that the cognate [269]*269statute, sec. 1, ch. 57, R. S. 1849 (now sec. 2071, Stats. 1898), by general language abolishing uses and trusts, was subject to no exception in favor of trusts for charities, and in which it was further said, apropos of an objection that the-statute against perpetuities also rendered invalid the devise-there under consideration, “We do not see how the objection is to be overcome, but will not express an opinion up.on it.” Meanwhile the courts of New York had been wavering over the construction of the same statute there. The court of last resort, having once only, and that with serious division, declared itself in favor of exemption of charities (Williams v. Williams, 8 N. Y. 525), had, after several expressions of doubt and disapproval of that case, settled definitely to the contrary view, and overruled Shotwell v. Mott, supra, and Williams v. Williams, supra, thereon. Leonard v. Burr, 18 N. Y. 96, 107; Levy v. Levy, 33 N. Y. 97; Bascom v. Albertson, 34 N. Y. 584; Holmes v. Mead, 52 N. Y. 332. The last of these cases was decided in 1873, and all were'cited and commented upon in Ruth v. Oberbrunner in 1876. Immediately thereafter our legislature entered upon the task of enacting the Revised Statutes of 1878, aided by three commis sioners of broad learning and thorough intimacy with such subjects as those involved in chapters 95 and 96, R. S. 1878. They had Ruth v. Oberbrunner and the abóve-cited New York cases before them, and re-enacted the general prohibition against both perpetuities and trusts, with only certain specified exceptions in favor of certain charitable grants, to wit, those to literary or charitable corporations. Secs. 2039, 2081, R. S. 1878. The revisers’ notes, communicated to the legislature as a basis for their action, make perfectly clear their understanding that the words used allowed no exception in favor of charities except those expressed in the amendment. They said:

“In section 2039 amendment is made to allow grants or devises in perpetuity to literary or charitable corporations. It [270]*270is thought that this ought not to be extended to religious corporations, but left only to those which are formed for advancing literary or charitable ends. The decision in Ruth v. Oberbrunner, 40 Wis. 238, shows a defect in the law as it is, which is generally admitted to require amendment. We have endeavored to afford it without too great innovation.

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Bluebook (online)
97 N.W. 258, 119 Wis. 262, 1903 Wisc. LEXIS 154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/danforth-v-city-of-oshkosh-wis-1903.