Erwin v. Hurd

13 Abb. N. Cas. 91
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 15, 1883
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 13 Abb. N. Cas. 91 (Erwin v. Hurd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Erwin v. Hurd, 13 Abb. N. Cas. 91 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1883).

Opinion

Rumsey, J.

I do not think that the deed from plaintiff to the trustees of the church created any trust. The purposes specified in the deed were those for which the society was authorized to take title to lands, and the grant was directly to the corporation to hold for those purposes, which were largely for its own benefit. Hence it was at the same time trusteee and eestui que trust, if the deed created a trust.

[95]*95If the trusts expressed in the deed were legal, they designated only the object for which the statute says that the corporation may take the legal title, and therefore no trust would be created (Voorhees v. Presbyterian Church, 17 Barb. 103, 106, 107; Wetmore v. Parker, 52 N. Y. 450, 459). But no trust can be declared in real estate for any purpose not expressed in section fifty-five of the statute of uses and trusts (1 R. S. 727; Holmes v. Mead, 52 N. Y. 332, 338 ; Follett v. Badeau, 26 Hun, 253, 256). The purposes, for which religious societies may take the title to lands are specified in the statute. For those purposes and to the extent therein permitted, they may take property ; and as to such property they have the legal title. But these purposes are not trusts. They are the beneficial interest which the grantee itself has in its own property. The true construction of the deed Is, I think, that the grantee took title to the conveyed lands upon a condition subsequent. Such a condition has no, effect to limit the title until it becomes operative to defeat it (Shattuck v. Hastings, 99 Mass. 23). The grantor having chosen to protect himself by a condition, he must look to the remedy given by it alone ; for a court of equity will not compel the fulfillment of that in a deed the non-performance of which works a forfeiture (1 Lead. Cas. on R. P. 148). The plaintiff therefore has no standing in court, as the grantor of this property, to restrain the alienation of it by the grantee, for the deed only gives him the right of re-entry for breach of the condition (Nicoll v. New York & E. R. R. Co., 12 N. Y. 121).

But the plaintiff insists that he is a pew-holder in that church, and as such has such an interest in the building as authorizes him to intervene to prevent its use for purposes other than those for which it was erected. Upon the papers, I have no doub t that General Erwin is a pew-holder in this church.

[96]*96As such, his rights, as between himself and the owners of the church building, are well settled in this country. He has only the right to occupy it during divine service, and for no other purpose. This right is subordinate to the power of the corporation to remodel the 'briilding or to sell it, on deciding to remove (Boone on Corp. 279 ; Heeny v. St. Peter’s Church, 2 Edw. Ch. 608; Sopier v. Trinity Church,

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Bluebook (online)
13 Abb. N. Cas. 91, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/erwin-v-hurd-nysupct-1883.