Estate of Odegard v. First National Bank of Madison

111 N.W.2d 424, 14 Wis. 2d 564, 1961 Wisc. LEXIS 290
Wisconsin Supreme Court·Decided October 31, 1961·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Fairchild, J.

1. Question as to priority between certain expenses and income benefits. Section 2 of Article Ninth provides as follows:

“To pay out of the income of the trust estate, if possible, but if necessary out of principal, all taxes, assessments, insurance, incumbrances, costs, commissions, or other charges legally or properly chargeable against the trust estate, including all costs and expenses incident to the maintenance, management, administration, protection, and distribution of the trust estate, and its defense against legal or equitable attack by any person, both before and after the administration of the estate in the probate court or courts.”

[570]*570The introductory portion of section 3 provides as follows:

“To apply the income from the trust estate (which as used in this section 3 shall be construed to mean current, and any accumulations of, income) for the use and benefit of the persons, and upon the terms and conditions, as follows: [The income benefits to the wife, children, sisters, and nieces are then described].”

Up to and including 1959, the trustee charged the bulk of the expenses listed in section 2 against income and a smaller portion against principal. The record does not disclose the theory upon which this division was made. In 1959 after deducting $3,450.73 of expenses from income, the net income exceeded the $20,000 annual income benefit specified for the widow. The county court concluded that expense charges listed in section 2 are to be paid out of principal except to the extent they can be paid out of income after all income benefits have been paid.

The parties agree that the correctness of the county court’s conclusion depends upon the words “out of the income ... if possible, but if necessary out of principal.” As long as there is any income it would be possible to pay an equal amount of expense charges out of income. The sisters and nieces urge, in effect, that “if possible” means “if possible after payment of income benefits,” thus adding a qualification which is not expressed. It is true that section 3, on the other hand, commands application of “the income” and does not say “the remaining income,” “the net income,” or words of similar import.

The provision for payment of charges “out of the income ... if possible” in section 2 precedes the direction “to apply the income” in section 3. Payment of expense charges out of income before payment of income benefits would not have left the widow and children in necessitous circumstances because a provision of section 3 authorized invasion of the corpus to provide comfort and support of the [571]*571widow and children if the income from the estate were insufficient for such comfort and support. A portion of section 3 provides that if, after making full payments of annual income benefits to the widow, children, sisters, and nieces, there shall remain unused income for such year then the income benefits to the sisters and nieces shall be increased up to a maximum of $6,000. It seems unlikely that the testator intended that income benefits to the sisters and nieces should be increased by $6,000 because there was “unused income” if such increase would necessitate paying expenses out of principal. Respondents argue that it is unlikely that testator expected the income in any year to be less than the charges listed in section 2 and that in order to make the language meaningful, it must be construed to deal with the more-likely situation where income was insufficient to pay all income benefits together with all expense charges. On the other hand, the main purpose of section 2 seems to have been to express a preference that expenses of the type listed should be taken out of income rather than out of principal even though a number of the listed types of expense would, in the absence of a specific direction, have been taken out of principal rather than income. The question is close. Largely because the provisions in section 2 precede the provisions in section 3, because the literal meaning of section 2, unless qualified by implication, requires the payment out of income to the extent that there is income, and because we find no such clear implication, we conclude that the expenses listed in section 2 are to be charged against income before the amount of income available for income benefits is determined.

As mentioned, the trustee had in past years divided the charges between principal and income. Because all reports and accounts up to January 1, 1960, had been approved and allowed, the county court ordered that its interpretation of section 2 be effective as of January 1, 1960. Although we [572]*572reach the opposite conclusion as to the proper construction of section 2, the parties do not contend that there should be any adjustment of the manner in which the charges were allocated prior to 1960 and we do not consider that such adjustment is necessary.

2. Constructions affirmed. Although the appeal is from the whole of the judgment, no argument has been made concerning a number of portions of the judgment, and as to them it will be affirmed.

3. Priority of widow’s income benefits over intermediate payments to children. Section 3 providing for income benefits clearly required that there be full payment in each year to the widow before there could be any payment of income benefits to the children, and that there be full payment of income benefits to the children before there could be any payment of income benefits to the sisters and nieces. Section 4 unconditionally directed payment of $25,000 to each child upon attaining age twenty-five and $50,000 upon attaining age thirty. No words in section 4 suggest that payment is conditioned upon the sufficiency of the income to provide the full annual income benefit to the widow. It is obvious, however, that payment to the children of the intermediate payments would reduce the income from the trust estate. It seems to have been conceded at all times that the intermediate payments totaling $225,000 should not presently be made in view of the fact that the available income prior to 1959 was never enough to provide the full annual income benefit for the widow. In the light of the general plan of the distribution of trust benefits, it might be argued that the testator intended that the intermediate payments be postponed if making them would jeopardize the income benefits payable to the widow. Whether or not we would so decide if the point were contested, we do not find it necessary to disturb the proposition evidently accepted by the children and the guardian ad litem that these [573]*573payments were properly postponed under the circumstances. Apparently no concession was made that the right to the intermediate payments completely lapsed, and we can find no reason for interpreting the will to that effect.

We conclude that to the extent that at any time it can be determined that retention of any part of the intermediate payments is no longer needed to produce income benefits for the widow, such part of the intermediate payments may be disbursed to the children in the manner provided by section 4.

4. Disposition of income in excess of amount required to pay section 2 expenses and income benefits to the widow. All testator’s children have attained age thirty-five and none is any longer entitled to income benefits.

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Estate of Odegard v. First National Bank of Madison, 111 N.W.2d 424, 14 Wis. 2d 564, 1961 Wisc. LEXIS 290 (Wis. 1961).

111 N.W.2d 424 (Estate of Odegard v. First National Bank of Madison) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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