Gall v. Union Nat'l Bank of Little Rock, Trustee

159 S.W.2d 757, 203 Ark. 1000, 1942 Ark. LEXIS 171
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 9, 1942
Docket4-6677
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 159 S.W.2d 757 (Gall v. Union Nat'l Bank of Little Rock, Trustee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gall v. Union Nat'l Bank of Little Rock, Trustee, 159 S.W.2d 757, 203 Ark. 1000, 1942 Ark. LEXIS 171 (Ark. 1942).

Opinion

Holt, J.

Mrs. Lillie M. Marston died testate May 14, 1939. She appointed W. H. Brown executor of her will.

February 26, 1934, Mrs. Marston executed a written trust agreement to appellee, Union National Bank of Little Bock, as trustee, under the terms of which she delivered bonds and securities of the value of $83,880, and directed the hank, as trustee, to hold, dispose. of, invest and reinvest the trust property, to pay the net income therefrom to her (Mrs. Marston) during her lifetime and after her death to her son, F. B. Atkins in monthly payments not to exceed $300.

Upon the death of F. B. Atkins, the trust agreement provided that the trust should terminate and the trustee should distribute .the corpus of the trust four-ninths to Mrs. Marston’s brother, four-ninths to certain nephews and nieces and one-ninth to the American Bible Society.

Mrs. Marston reserved to herself in the trust agreement the power to revoke the trust in whole or in part, using the'following language: “The trustor has reserved to herself the right to revoke in whole or in part this trust by giving written notice to the trustee at least six months prior to the time the revocation shall take effect and in event of such revocation, trustor agrees to take and accept the trust estate, subject to all contracts and agreements, and in the form the same then exists.”

July 27, 1936, Mrs. Marston entered into a writing with appellee trustee amending the trust agreement. The only effect of this amendment, however, was to provide for distribution of the corpus at the termination of the trust in fourteenth interests instead of the original ninth interests. In making this change, she named additional beneficiaries, including appellant, Juanita Gall, her granddaughter, to whom she gave a fourteenth interest. Appellant had been omitted in the first agreement. The last paragraph of the amended agreement provided: “All of the other provisions of said trust agreement are hereby ratified and confirmed.”

Following the execution of these trust agreements, September 15, 1937, Mrs. Marston executed her will, under the terms of which she bequeathed to her son, F. R. Atkins, all the income from “my estate both real and personal wheresoever located during his natural life” and bequeathed to appellant, Juanita Gall, “all my estate both real and personal wherever located” after the death of F. R. Atkins. F. R. Atkins is the father of Juanita Gall.

March 5, 1940, Mallory Williams, claiming to be the administrator of Mrs. Marston’s estate, filed suit aguinst the trustee bank, the heirs and trust beneficiaries, seeking to have the trust agreements canceled on the ground that Mrs. Marston was mentally incompetent to dispose of her property at the time she executed the trust agreements.

June 17, 1940, W. H. Brown, as' executor, filed a similar suit against the same parties as in the Williams suit, seeking to set aside the trust agreements on the same grounds alleged in the Williams, suit, and prayed for an order impounding the corpus of the trust estate and for an accounting of the trust properties from the trustee to Brown. Copies of the trust agreements were attached to and made a part of Brown’s complaint.

The Williams suit and the Brown' suit were consolidated by the court below.

August 14, 1940, the trustee bank filed answer, specifically denying that Mrs. Marston was incompetent at the time the trust agreements were executed by her, and copies of the trust agreements were made a part of the answer.

August 14,1940, the defendants, beneficiaries of the trust agreements, filed their answer in all material respects similar to that filed by the trustee bank.

February 3, 1941, appellant, Juanita Gall, a co-defendant of appellees, trustee bank and beneficiaries under the trust agreements, filed separate answer in 'which she denied the mental incompetency of Lillie M. Marston at the time she executed the trust agreements and denied that they were invalid.

Juanita Gall also filed a cross-complaint, which covers more than ten pages of the record. The material allegations of her cross-complaint, as affect the issues here, are: that her grandmother, Mrs. Marston, was at all times prior to her death possessed of sufficient mentality to comprehend and transact business affairs, and to form and express her true intentions and desires with reference to the disposition of her property; that her grandmother was influenced in the execution of the trust agreement, of 1934, and the amendment thereto' of 1936, by her second husband, Frank K. Marston. Copies of these trust agreements were made a part of the cross-complaint, that after the death of Mr. Marston her grandmother evidenced great affection and preference for cross-complainant and that s'ometime after her grandmother executed the amended trust agreement, her grandmother expressed to her her intention to revoke the trust agreements and make a different disposition of all of her property so that at her grandmother’s death F. R. Atkins, Juanita Gall’s father, would have the income from her grandmother’s property during his lifetime and at his death all of her property would go to cross-complainant in fee simple.

She further alleged that her grandmother in an effort to carry out this intention, so expressed to crosscomplainhnt, directed her attorney to prepare her will. This was done and the will was duly executed by the grandmother, Mrs. Marston. The fourth paragraph of the will was made a part, of the cross-complaint and is as follows : ‘ ‘ Fourth. I will, give, and bequeath to my beloved granddaughter, Juanita Atkins Gall, all my estate both real and personal wherever located, but she cannot have any of the income from my estate until after the death of my beloved son, Frederick Roberts Atkins, her father, it being the intentions of this will to give'to my son the income from all my property during his natural life. ’ ’

She further alleged that her grandmother inquired of her attorney, in whom she reposed great confidence, whether the terms of the will were sufficient to carry out her intention and desire to give all of her property in fee simple to her granddaughter, cross-complainant, at the death of F. R. Atkins, and was assured that the provisions of the will were sufficient to carry her intentions into effect.

Cross-complainant further alleged that from the date of the execution of her will September 15, 1937, until her death May 14, 1939, Mrs. Marston many times expressed that she had made a will giving all her property to appellant after the death of her father, F. R. Atkins.

She alleged that the advice given her grandmother by the attorney was not true “but states that the subject-matter of said advices was susceptible of accurate truth and knowledge by an attorney at the time, namely, that said will did not revoke .said trust agreement upon the death of her grandmother and dispose of all she died possessed of including said trust estate thereunder”; that mutual mistake occurred between cross-complainant’s grandmother and her attorney as follows:

“(a) Mutual mistake occurred at the time Mrs.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Turnbull- Wheatley v. Turnbull
2024 V.I. 24 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2024)
Sharon Baker v. Kevin Baker, Nina Cranford, Doug Baker, and David Baker
2022 Ark. App. 260 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2022)
Ashley v. Ashley
405 S.W.3d 419 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2012)
Sutter v. Sutter
43 S.W.3d 736 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2001)
Foshee v. Murphy
593 S.W.2d 486 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 1980)
Richards v. Worthen Bank & Trust Co.
552 S.W.2d 228 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1977)
Lowell Perkins Agency, Inc. v. Jacobs
469 S.W.2d 89 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1971)
Murry v. Hale
203 F. Supp. 583 (E.D. Arkansas, 1962)
Tamko Asphalt Products, Inc. v. Fenix
321 S.W.2d 527 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1959)
Cohn v. Central National Bank
60 S.E.2d 30 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1950)
Leahy v. Old Colony Trust Co.
93 N.E.2d 238 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1950)
United Building & Loan Ass'n v. Garrett
64 F. Supp. 460 (W.D. Arkansas, 1946)
Lynch v. Hammock, Chancellor
165 S.W.2d 369 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1942)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
159 S.W.2d 757, 203 Ark. 1000, 1942 Ark. LEXIS 171, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gall-v-union-natl-bank-of-little-rock-trustee-ark-1942.