Frye v. Community Chest

4 So. 2d 140, 241 Ala. 591, 1941 Ala. LEXIS 184
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedOctober 9, 1941
Docket6 Div. 853.
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 4 So. 2d 140 (Frye v. Community Chest) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frye v. Community Chest, 4 So. 2d 140, 241 Ala. 591, 1941 Ala. LEXIS 184 (Ala. 1941).

Opinion

BOULDIN, Justice.

This appeal is to review a decree in equity construing the will of Sibley P. King, deceased, and advising the executor upon matters of administration. The bill was filed by the executor. He appeals, but leaves the several parties, upon sundry cross-appeals, to litigate their conflicting interests.

We proceed to consider - the features of the decree questioned by one or more interested parties.

In the First Item of the will the testator, after providing for payment of debts and funeral expenses, including a tombstone, .made a series of special bequests “unto my beloved charities & churches & institutions.”

Three of these, with the decretal order touching same, are as follows:

• The will: “United Charities of Birmingham, Ala. One Thousand dollars.”

*597 The decree: “That the bequest of $1000.-00 to United Charities has lapsed.”

The will: “Alabama Girls’ Industrial School of Montevallo, Ala. One Thousand dollars.”

The decree: “That the bequest of $1000.-00 to Alabama Girls’ Industrial School of Montevallo, Ala., -is valid, has not lapsed and should be paid to Alabama College.”

The will: “Alabama Boys Industrial School of Ragland, Ala., One Thousand Dollars.”

The decree: “That the bequest of $1000.-00 to the Boys Industrial School of Rag-land, Alabama, is valid, has not lapsed and should be paid to the Alabama School of Trades.”

The will', executed in 1923, was written by the testator in his own hand. He died in 1940. He was a resident of Birmingham.

Questions for our decision are: Did the bequest to “United Charities” lapse, or should it be paid to the Community Chest of Birmingham? Did the bequests to the two schools, or either of them, lapse, or should they be paid as decreed?

By Legislative Act of 1897, Gen.Acts 1896-7, p. 885, certain citizens, and others who should become members, were incorporated under the name of “The Society of The United Charities of Birmingham.” It was authorized to own property, to receive gifts and devises, for the purpose of aiding persons, the objects of charity in the city, to establish and operate a hospital for,the poor, an industrial school, workhouse or farm, &c.

In 1907 the name of the Welfare Organization was changed from United Charities to Associate Charities, and in 1910 was incorporated under the name of “Associated Charities of Birmingham, Alabama.” The objects were “to look after the charitable work of the city of Birmingham and vicinity, to raise money for the expenses of same and in a general way to study and to remedy the sociological evils of the community.”

This set-up functioned for some seven years. Gradually public support and supervision ' of the several welfare agencies passed under the city welfare department.

The Community Chest, long agitated, took the form of an active drive in the fall of 1923, about the time-this will was made. From that time to testator’s death, the Community Chest functioned, and still functions. Its ministry is quite accurately indicated by the term “United Charities” used in the testator’s will.

Alabama College had its beginning bjr legislative act of 1893, to become effective, January 1, 1895. Acts of 1892-3, p. 1002. This act looked to the location and establishment of a State School under the name of “Alabama Girls’ Industrial School,” at which girls “may acquire a thorough normal school education.” Specific emphasis was given to technical courses, several being listed in the act, and to be extended to others “fitting and preparing such girls for'the practical industries of the age.” In due course the institution was located by the Board of Trustees at Montevallo.

The name “Industrial School” came to be associated with reform schools; a thought never in the legislative mind, nor in the mind of the management of this institution. This led to a change of name in 1911, again in 1919, and finally in 1923, shortly before this will was made, to “Alabama College.” Meantime the college had grown, became a prominent well-known college for women. The law defined it as a “state educational institution of higher learning.” Alabama School Code of 1927, § 500, Code 1940, Tit. 52, § 456.

.Without question the testator knew the institution well. The college grounds were formerly owned by his grandfather, who built the residence still standing on the campus, known as the “King House.”

The courses of study at the time the will was executed had been enlarged “horizontally and vertically;” meaning more courses and more time required for completion.' This enlargement proceeded until the testator’s death, technical courses continuing as part of the work of the institution.

Clearly this college was the institution in mind in making the bequest to “Alabama Girls’ Industrial School at Montevallo, Ala.” The Alabama School of Trades, now located at Gadsden, grew out of a legislative' act of 1911, to establish “The Alabama School of Trades and Industry” at Ragland, Alabama, for the education of boys and young men “in all of the useful and industrial occupations and in the arts and sciences.” General Acts of 1911, p. 383. The school failed to materialize for inability to match the state appropriation by local funds as provided in the act-.

*598 The act of 1911 was re-enacted as.part of the School Code of 1919, in substantially the same terms. Acts of 1919, p. 645.

Still the conditions for opening the school at Ragland were not met. By an act approved September 29, 1923, a few weeks before this will was executed, the Board of Trustees or Board of Control already in being were empowered to select another location more suitable for the proposed institution. General Acts of 1923, p. 627.

Gadsden was chosen, the school established, and has been in full operation to this day. The terms of the same Board uf Trustees were extended to 1927.

The change of location was confirmed, and the name changed to Alabama School of Trades, operating under the original charter. School Code of 1927, § 481, Code 1940, Tit. 52, § 442.

The friends and promoters of the enterprise from the beginning were the movers in changing the location.

Obviously the testator did not concern himself to ascertain the legal names of either of these schools when writing his will. At no time was the boys school named “Alabama Boys’ Industrial School.” ■His primary thought was to make bequests to a girls’ school and to a boys’ school m like amounts; selecting Montevallo School for girls and the proposed Ragland School for boys as the beneficiaries. _ This main purpose tends to negative an intent to make the location at Ragi.md a sine qua non for the bequest. Both are State Schools for the education of boys and girls from the entire State.

The same observations apply to the name “United Charities.” The testator did not concern himself to learn that the old order under that name had passed away. Probably he did, as a supporter of the Charities of his city, know in a general way of the different set-ups from time to time.

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Bluebook (online)
4 So. 2d 140, 241 Ala. 591, 1941 Ala. LEXIS 184, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frye-v-community-chest-ala-1941.