Glauser Estate

38 A.2d 64, 350 Pa. 192, 1944 Pa. LEXIS 547
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 17, 1944
DocketAppeals, 78, 79, 80, 88 and 107
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 38 A.2d 64 (Glauser Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glauser Estate, 38 A.2d 64, 350 Pa. 192, 1944 Pa. LEXIS 547 (Pa. 1944).

Opinion

Opinion by

Me. Justice Linn,

There are five appeals from orders in surcharge proceedings on exceptions to the first account of trustees under the will of Edwin D. Glauser, who died January 12, 1925. His widow and the Delaware County Trust Company were appointed executors and trustees. On January 5, 1926, their first and final executors’ account was confirmed and the balance was awarded to them for administration as trustees.

*194 At the date of his will, March 15, 1921, testator was engaged in Chester in the lumber and mill work business. He made certain provisions concerning the business but in December, 1922, he transferred it to Stacy G. Glauser & Son, Inc., hereafter referred to as Glauser company, for 4,000 shares of its stock. He gave 1,500 shares to his wife, sold some 700 shares to employees and retained the balance. His trustee held 1,761 shares, a minority interest. He made no change in his will after transferring the business to the corporation.

He directed that the net income from the residue be paid in equal shares to his widow and to his daughter during their joint lives, and to his daughter after the death of his widow, with remainder, on the daughter’s death, to her children, etc. In the 9th and 11th paragraphs of his will he provided: “Ninth: As a part of my estate is invested in the lumber and mill work business, in. order that the interest of my heirs shall not suffer by a forced sale of such business, I hereby authorize and empower my Executors hereinafter named and the survivor of them at their discretion to carry on said business with as full power as I could do if then living until such time as a favorable sale of the business can be made, but only for a limited time not exceeding three years to permit of a sale on a favorable market; and I authorize and empower my said Executors and the survivor of them to sell said business together with any and all real estate used in connection therewith, the real estate being sold by virtue of the power hereinafter given, or to sell the personal property and the real estate separately in parts or parcels or otherwise, as my said Executors or Executor may deem most advantageous to my estate. My Executors shall not be responsible except for good faith in the management of my business and the sale thereof.”

“Eleventh: I hereby authorize and empower my said Executors or Executor and Trustees or Trustee to hold and retain as parts of my estate and the trusts here *195 under any securities or investments owned by me at the time of my decease, to subscribe to stock allotments, to pay dues on Building Association stocks until the maturity thereof, and to sell at public or private sale, alter, vary and change such securities and investments from time to time at their or its discretion, and to make reinvestment of the proceeds of any sale or sales thereof, not being confined to what are known as legal investments.”

Assignments of error complain of the refusal to surcharge in four respects: (1) for loss by retention of stock of Glauser company; (2) for loss by investment in and retention of stock of Delaware County Trust Company; (3) insufficient surcharge on account of purchase of stock in 1931 from employes of the Glauser company; (4) on account of payment alleged to have been unlawfully made in 1933 on testator’s endorsement.

(1) Testator’s daughter, Mrs. Spackman, and Mr. Fronefield, guardian ad litem for her children and unascertained remaindermen, in their appeals, complain that the trustees were not surcharged with loss of the investment in" the Glauser company stock. After testator’s death, his widow, who had been a director, was elected president of the company; Joseph K. MacLean, who had been vice president and secretary, and who is described as testator’s trusted assistant, became treasurer. 1 Willis K. Glauser, testator’s cousin, became secretary. He was a member of the bar of Delaware County and was assistant trust officer of the Delaware County Trust Company, a position said to have been obtained on the recommendation of testator, a director of the trust company. During 1925 and 1926 the Glauser company prospered and earned and paid dividends of 8% in each *196 year. In 1927 a dividend of 6% was paid, partly ont of surplus. Thereafter the business was unsuccessful. In 1931 a creditors’ committee took over the assets and liquidated them.

By transferring his business to the corporation and disposing of a majority of the stock, testator created conditions to which the ninth paragraph of his will were no longer wholly applicable. The accountants retained the stock pursuant to express authority. Testator had also provided that his “executors shall not be responsible except for good faith in the management of my business and the sale thereof.”

In Stirling’s Estate, 342 Pa. 497, at p. 504, 21 A. 2d 72, we said: “The authority to retain the investments did not justify holding without attention. The rule to be applied is that which measures a fiduciary’s obligation where the testator authorizes his investments to be retained. It was considered recently in Crawford’s Estate, 293 Pa. 570, 577, 143 A. 214, and in Dempster’s Estate, 308 Pa. 153, 159, 162 A. 447, from which we quote: ‘We further said in that case [Detre’s Estate, 273 Pa.], at page 350, that all that is required of a trustee “is common skill, common prudence and common caution, and he is not liable when he acts in good faith as others do with their own property . . . a trustee will not be held personally liable for an honest exercise of a discretionary power, in the absence of supine negligence or wilful default.” ’ See also Dickinson’s Estate, 318 Pa. 561, 563, 179 A. 443. ‘The trustee is under a duty to the beneficiary in administering the trust to exercise such care and skill as a man of ordinary prudence would exercise in dealing with his own property; and if the trustee has greater skill than that of a man of ordinary prudence, he is under a duty to exercise such skill as he has.’ Restatement, Trusts, section 174.”

As testator authorized retention of the investment, the burden of proving negligence in retaining it was on the exceptants: Jones Estate, 344 Pa. 100, and cases *197 cited p. 104, 23 A. 2d 434. The learned auditing judge held there was no proof to sustain a finding of negligence. The appellants challenge that finding.

It is first to he observed that there is no evidence of any market in which accountants could have sold the minority interest in the Glauser company: compare Miller’s Estate, 345 Pa. 91, 26 A. 2d 320; Quinn’s Es tate, 342 Pa. 509, 21 A. 2d 78. They do not, however, rest merely on the absence of market for the shares of stock. They called witnesses to give their opinions as to possible sale of the property of the company. Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
38 A.2d 64, 350 Pa. 192, 1944 Pa. LEXIS 547, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glauser-estate-pa-1944.