Emery Trust

52 Pa. D. & C.2d 596, 1971 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 233
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas
DecidedJuly 16, 1971
StatusPublished

This text of 52 Pa. D. & C.2d 596 (Emery Trust) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Emery Trust, 52 Pa. D. & C.2d 596, 1971 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 233 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1971).

Opinion

KLEIN, Adm. J.,

— The reason for filing the present account is the death on March 20, 1968, of Heli de Talleyrand, life income beneficiary. Manuel Gonzalez de Andia is stated to have been appointed executor of his estate.

The statement of proposed distribution recites that the settlor was not a resident of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, hence no Pennsylvania inheritance tax was claimed or is payable.

All parties in interest are stated to have received notice of this audit.

By decree of this court dated March 3, 1970, Henry B. FitzPatrick, Jr., Esq., was appointed guardian ad [597]*597litem for minors and trustee ad litem for all unborn and unascertained interests. Mr. FitzPatrick filed a written report in which he discussed at length the question requiring adjudication by this court insofar as it affects the interests he represents.

John J. Emery died, testate, on September 5, 1908, leaving to survive him his widow, Lela A. Emery (later Anson), who elected to take against his will. On January 16, 1909, she executed a trust indenture in which she conveyed the assets she received from her husband’s estate to trustees. In this deed she recited that she was creating the trust, which was irrevocable, in order that she might receive the income during her life and after her death “for the enjoyment of the children of herself and of her husband, the said John J. Emery, now deceased, and of their descendants, subject to such provisions, in trust or otherwise, as she may hereinafter impose and so that the corpus of her said right, title and interest may pass upon her decease undiminished by her, subject to such provisions, restrictions and limitations, to his blood, either directly or by virtue of the powers she may confer.”

She reserved to herself a power to appoint the principal by her last will and testament amongst her children then living and descendants of children then dead but should she fail to appoint then upon her death, the principal should be divided into as many shares as at that time there should be children of her and her late husband, John J. Emery, then living, and children of theirs dead represented by descendants then living. She directed that the shares of the daughters be held in trust to pay the income to such daughter for life, and at the death of such daughter “to pay over and distribute in kind or otherwise the principal and all accumulations of said share as she may by her Will direct, only, however, to the blood of [598]*598the said John J. Emery, the late husband of Grantor, save that said daughter may appoint a life estate in whole or in part in said share to any husband she may leave surviving her who should have been born at a date antecedent to the execution of this Indenture, and to whom said daughter shall have been married ...”

On March 4, 1938, the settlor executed a “Deed of Extinguishment” in which she expressly surrendered the power of appointment which she retained under the provisions of the trust deed.

Lela A. Emery subsequently remarried to Alfred Anson and died July 14, 1953, leaving a will dated March 4, 1938, which is the same day she executed the “Deed of Extinguishment,” in which she expressly stated that she had surrendered her power of appointment under the 1909 deed, and that nothing in her will should operate as an exercise of that power. She was survived by two sons, Thomas Emery and John J. Emery, whose shares have passed out of the trust, and by three daughters, Lela Emery de Talleyrand, Alexandra Moore McKay and Audrey Emery.

Lela Emery de Talleyrand died December 29, 1962. By her will she appointed the entire net income from her trust to her husband, Heli de Talleyrand, for life, and subject to her husband’s interest, appointed the principal in further trust for the benefit of her two daughters, Sheila M. Vigano and Loma M. St. Aubyn, and their issue. Under the appointment, she created a separate trust for each daughter. Each daughter is to receive the net income from her trust during her lifetime. If either daughter should die before the date fixed for vesting of the principal, the net income is to be paid to her issue living from time to time until such vesting date. At the expiration of 21 years, less one day, after Lela’s two brothers and two sisters (who [599]*599were the settlor’s surviving children and were lives-in-being at the date the deed was executed), the principal of each daughter’s trust is to vest in her then living children. At each daughter’s death, or at the vesting date if the daughter should die before then, the principal is to be distributed to those in whom it vested. If either daughter should have no issue living at the vesting date, at her death her trust is to accrue to her sister’s trust and in case neither daughter should have any issue at the vesting date, then upon the survivor’s death the entire is to be distributed to the descendants then living of John J. Emery.

Heli de Talleyrand, Lela’s husband, died on March 20, 1968. Accordingly, if Lela’s appointment in further trust for her two daughters is valid and effective, the entire fund will continue to remain in trust. If the appointment is not effective) the entire principal would now pass to Sheila M. Vigano and Lorna M. St. Aubyn, subject to certain assignments made by them to Addison Lanier and Girard Trust Company (now Girard Trust Bank) as trustees.

Girard Trust Bank, in its capacity as the accounting trustee, has taken the position that the appointment in further trust is valid. The bank and John J. Emery, trustees under the will of Lela Emery de Talleyrand in the exercise of her power of appointment, concur in this view, as does Henry B. FitzPatrick, Jr., the guardian and trustee ad litem.

Per contra, counsel for Lorna M. St. Aubyn vigorously contend that her mother, Lela Emery de Talleyrand, improperly exercised the power of appointment given to her under the deed of Lela Emery An-son. They maintain that her power was limited to making outright gifts to the persons who are of “the blood” of John J. Emery and that she had no right to pass the property in trust. They request the court to [600]*600award the principal of the trust together with accrued income outright in equal shares to her and her sister, Sheila M. Vigano.

Since Lela A. Emery (Anson) did not exercise the power she originally reserved for herself in the trust instrument, we must look to the powers she conferred upon her daughters therein to seek the answer to the question which has been submitted to us for decision.

Whether Lela Emery de Talleyrand, the donee of the power, had the right to appoint to trustees for one or more members of the class or whether she must appoint directly to the members of the class depends upon her mother’s intention, to be ascertained from a study of the four corners of the trust deed of 1909. See Burleigh Estate, 405 Pa. 373 (1961).

Scott on Trusts, vol. 1, 3rd ed. § 17.2, p. 180, says:

. . There is a tendency to construe with increasing liberality the language of the instrument in which the power is conferred, and to hold that the donee of the power has broad discretion as to the manner in which he shall exercise it in favor of the members of the class, unless it appears that the donor intended to restrict him. Thus, in the Restatement of Property §358, it is stated that “If, but only if, the donor does not manifest a contrary intent, the donee of a special power can effectively

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Bluebook (online)
52 Pa. D. & C.2d 596, 1971 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 233, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/emery-trust-pactcompl-1971.