Fulmer Estates

75 Pa. D. & C.2d 674, 1976 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 252
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Northampton County
DecidedMay 19, 1976
Docketnos. 1945-37 and 1954-280
StatusPublished

This text of 75 Pa. D. & C.2d 674 (Fulmer Estates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Northampton County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fulmer Estates, 75 Pa. D. & C.2d 674, 1976 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 252 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1976).

Opinion

FRANCIOSA, J.,

This case comes before us on objections of the life beneficiaries to the audit statement for distribution filed by the acting trustees of testamentary trusts in the estates of Joseph H. Fulmer and Lottie Cope Fulmer, deceased.

Initially, we note that this is the third time questions have arisen during the administration of the two estates.

The first question arose upon the death of George W. Fulmer, a life beneficiary under the will of Lottie Fulmer.1 The issue in that proceeding was whether [676]*676the income from the share of George W. Fulmer should accumulate in the hands of the trustees until the termination of all of the life estates. In a decree nisi in the Orphans’ Court of Northampton County entered by Judge Carleton T. Woodring, a finding against an accumulation was made. As a result, St. Luke’s Hospital, sole remainderman,2 was permitted to receive income previously paid to a deceased life beneficiary until the corpus was to be distributed. See in re Estate of Lottie Cope Fulmer, No. 280-1954, Orphans’ Court Division (1955).

Approximately ten years later, another proposed schedule of distribution of the acting trustees was challenged. Again, the controversy concerned the accumulation of income. And, interestingly enough, the life tenant whose death was involved was the same George W. Fulmer. Evidently, the holding reached in 1955 in the Estate of Lottie Cope Fulmer was not applied to the estate of Joseph H. Fulmer. The dispute was referred once more to Judge Woodring who awarded immediate distribution of the income to St. Luke’s Hospital. The ruling was based on his earlier decision in the Estate of Lottie Cope Fulmer, supra. See Estate of Joseph H. Fulmer, no. 37-1945, Orphans’ Court Division (1965).

Now, in connection with the trustees’ accounting for the period from August 13, 1965, to January 2, 1975, a new and much more complicated controversy has arisen between the life beneficiaries and the trustees.

In addition to the above history of the case, a review of the facts is necessary for a full under[677]*677standing of the issues raised by the current proceedings.

The wills of Joseph H. Fulmer and Lottie Cope Fulmer are reciprocal in nature. Therefore, the trustees of the Joseph H. Fulmer Trust and the Lottie Cope Fulmer Trust are the same; the beneficiaries of each trust are the same; the purposes and goals of the separate wills and trusts are substantially the same; and the trusts have the same termination date, i.e., upon the death of the last of the life tenants.

When Joseph H. Fulmer died on May 14, 1944, the main asset retained by the Joseph H. Fulmer Estate was a proprietorship known as “Green Acre Farms.” The lands used by the proprietorship prior to the death of Joseph H. Fulmer were owned jointly by him and Lottie Cope Fulmer, his wife. Upon his death, this land became the sole property of his wife. Thereafter, on March 18, 1953, she died and the land became the principal asset in the estate of Lottie Cope Fulmer and in the Lottie Cope Fulmer Trust. At present, the Lottie Cope Fulmer Trust leases the land to the Joseph H. Fulmer Trust.

In the fiscal year ending March 31, 1969, the proprietorship lost a total of $25,125 as follows: $9,606 in its farming operation, plus depreciation of $11,969, and trustees’ commission of $3,550.

In the fiscal year ending March 31, 1972, the proprietorship lost a total of $26,461 as follows: $11,302 in its farming operation, plus depreciation of $11,609 and trustees’ commission of $3,550.

Under the Principal and Income Act of 1947, these losses have been charged to the principal account of the Joseph H. Fulmer Estate.3

[678]*678As a consequence of the above losses, the business was compelled to borrow funds from banks and the Estate of Lottie Cope Fulmer to cover its operational expenses. These loans all carried interest which was paid from the business. For the years 1968 through 1975, payments of interest totaled $17,392.34.

The audit statement for distribution presently before us for confirmation of administration to date, includes a reference to the business losses sustained by the operation of Green Acre Farms. In the addendum to paragraph 5, the following appears:

“. . .In view of the foregoing, it is obvious that the Trustees must continue to borrow from year to year to maintain an adequate cash position to enable them to continue the operation of Green Acre Farms and carry out the Testator’s intent. The borrowing has also created an additional, continuing expense to the Trust. It has also become necessary to borrow more sums to operate Green Acre Farms because of rising costs of operation and increased costs of replacing necessary equipment and machinery. The Estate of Lottie Cope Fulmer possesses sufficient stocks, bonds and cash to adequately supply all credit needs of Green Acre Farms.”

The trustees then go on to consider two alternatives. First, they discuss the possibility of a merger of the trusts. If this is unacceptable to the court, the trustees then urge that they be permitted to take [679]*679capital from the Lottie Cope Fulmer Trust and add it to the capital account of the proprietorship in the Joseph H. Fulmer Trust. The trustees conclude their assessment of the situation by recommending a merger of the two trusts.

In order to obtain the court’s approval of their recommendation, the trustees have framed two questions in paragraph 5 of the pending audit statement for distribution. The questions read as follows:

“Will the Court permit the merger of the trust created by the last will and testament of Joseph H. Fulmer with the trust created by the last will and testament of Lottie Cope Fulmer, where the trustees are the same, the beneficiaries are the same, the purposes of the trusts are the same, the powers given to the trustees are the same and the termination of the trusts are the same?
“In the alternative, will the trustees be permitted to contribute additional capital from the principal of the estate of Lottie Cope Fulmer, Orphans’ Court #280-1954, to the proprietorship of Green Acre Farms, an asset of the Joseph H. Fulmer Estate, Orphans’ Court #37-1945, under the terms of the last wills and testaments of the said Joseph H. Fulmer, deceased, and Lottie Cope Fulmer, deceased, as a business which was carried on by Lottie Cope Fulmer at the time of her decease?”

The affirmative ruling being sought by the trustees has encountered a series of objections filed on behalf of the life beneficiaries.

A set of objections filed by St. Luke’s Hospital, sole remainderman, protest against either the merger of the assets of the two trusts or the contribution of capital from the principal of the Lottie Cope Fulmer Trust to the proprietorship of Green [680]*680Acre Farms which is an asset of the Joseph H. Fulmer Trust. The hospital also lodges two objections to the accounting as rendered by the trustees. Those objections are:

(1) That the trustees failed to reimburse principal from net earnings in subsequent years for the net operational losses of Green Acre Farms for the fiscal years ending March 31, 1969 and ending March 31, 1972.

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Bluebook (online)
75 Pa. D. & C.2d 674, 1976 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 252, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fulmer-estates-pactcomplnortha-1976.