Globensky v. St. Joseph-Benton Harbor Memorial Hospital

156 N.W.2d 594, 9 Mich. App. 262, 1967 Mich. App. LEXIS 424
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 8, 1967
DocketDocket No. 2,666
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 156 N.W.2d 594 (Globensky v. St. Joseph-Benton Harbor Memorial Hospital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Globensky v. St. Joseph-Benton Harbor Memorial Hospital, 156 N.W.2d 594, 9 Mich. App. 262, 1967 Mich. App. LEXIS 424 (Mich. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

Holbrook, P. J.

Trustee under tbe last will and testament of Luman H. Gray, deceased, presented petition to tbe probate court for Berrien county for construction of will and allowance of her amended eighth annual account. The trustee also sought the reallocation of receipts and disbursements to income and principal by revising the inventory of assets in the trust as of July 1, 1962, showing receipts and disbursements for the first 7 annual accounts on an income and principal basis resulting in a claimed additional income and corresponding loss to principal.

Contestant-appellee, St. Joseph-Benton Harbor Memorial Hospital filed objections to the allowance of the said amended eighth annual account and the petition.

After a hearing the Honorable Julian E. Hughes, probate judge, rendered a written opinion and signed an order in accord therewith filed December 31, 1964, which stated in part as follows:

“It is hereby ordered, that the eighth annual account as amended be allowed except as follows:
[265]*265“2. The principal account is not to reflect any adjustments resulting from retrospective allocation of income and disbursements prior to July 1, 1962.”

Petitioner thereupon appealed to this Court, In re Gray Estate (1965), 1 Mich App 331. We determined therein that this Court did not at the time have jurisdiction to hear the appeal and certified the proceedings back to the probate court. Petitioner then filed a claim of appeal to the Berrien county circuit court. Contestant filed a cross-appeal objecting to that part of the probate court order allowing petitioner’s amended eighth annual account covering the period from July 1, 1962, to July 1, 1963.

After a hearing, the Honorable Karl F. Zick, circuit judge, rendered a written opinion and entered an order affirming the probate court’s findings and order.

Petitioner has taken this appeal and raises for review the question: Can a trustee’s amended eighth annual account revise the beginning inventory of assets so as to reallocate receipts and disbursements between income and principal for the first 7 annual accounts previously duly allowed by the probate court?

The pertinent facts necessary to a decision appear to be as follows: The will of Luman H. Gray established 2 trusts. Trust “A” with the net income derived therefrom to be paid to the deceased’s widow and the remainder to be paid to the designate of the widow by power of appointment. Trust “B” with the net income therefrom to be paid to the testator’s father and upon his death to testator’s widow for her lifetime with the residue to the remainderman, St. Joseph-Benton Harbor Memorial Hospital. The corpus of trust “A” is to become a part of trust [266]*266“B” if the widow fails to exercise her power of appointment. The widow has received all the trust income from both trusts “A” and “B” since October 1, 1961, by reason of the death of testator’s father.

The testator’s will provides in part as follows:

“I hereby empower my said trustees to demand, receive and compromise any right of action or right to realty or personalty by this will transferred; to subdivide, option, sell, exchange, rent, lease, partition, mortgage, pledge, the whole or any part of the real, mixed or personal estate in said trust; to remodel, repair or demolish * * * buildings on said real estate or any portion thereof.”

The major asset of the estate was the Gray building property in the city of Benton Harbor. It was valued in the final account of the estate dated March 1, 1955, and in the first annual trust accounting at $360,290, less a mortgage of $25,250 outstanding, dated October 29, 1948, payable $750 quarterly plus interest at 4%. Cash was listed in the final account in the amount of $23,002.17 which was distributed to the income beneficiary of trust “A” in the amount of $9,356.13 and to the income beneficiary of trust “B” in the amount of $10,692.72. The trustees borrowed by mortgage dated August 5, 1955, on the Gray building property, a total of $55,200 to pay oft the balance of $23,763.21 on the old mortgage and to purchase a 5% legacy in the estate owned by appellant Virginia H. Globensky, one of the trustees.

Appellant claims that she should be allowed by her amended eighth annual account to revise the trustees’ first 7 annual accounts so as to charge the remaindermen of the trust with additional charges by allocating certain expenses to principal formerly charged to income. This would require the remaindermen to be charged with principal payments on [267]*267tlie mortgages and one-half of the trustees’ and attorneys’ fees. A schedule in the footnote1 dis[268]*268closes pertinent facts concerning the first 7 annual accounts.

In the sixth annual accounting period, the trustees again mortgaged the Gray building property for $50,000, to pay the balance of $38,013.35 on the previous mortgage with the remainder being used for capital improvements.

On April 17, 1962, the trustees mortgaged the Gray building property for an additional $120,000, to make major capital improvements to the building.

The gross income from the Gray building for the second annual period was $50,568.29 with a net of $25,830.11, which compares with the seventh annual period of income from Gray building of $37,595.54 with a net of $10,336.11. Taxes on the Gray building property for the second annual period were $5,469.69, and for the seventh annual period were $9,151.08. Other costs reflected similar increases. This indicated a definite deterioration in the net income during the most recent years.

On November 4, 1963, appellant as sole trustee filed an eighth annual account for the period of July 1, 1962, to July 1, 1963. Notice was given in the proper manner, but the hearing on the account was never held for the reason that on December 2, 1963, testator’s widow, Mary Louise Gray Howard objected to the allowance of the account.

On September 4,1964, appellant filed her amended eighth annual account and a petition to construe deceased’s will so as to require accountings to be reported on income and principal account basis. On October 23, 1964, the probate court accepted the resignation of Virginia H. Globensky as sole trustee and, with consent of counsel, appointed Robert A. Whitney and Clinton H. Maki who are presently serving as successor trustees.

The eighth annual account discloses a gross income from the Gray building of $37,137.96 with a [269]*269net of $9,101.25. This account also discloses that a capital asset, i.e., 43 shares of P & G, Inc., stock valued in the trust estate up to that time at $247,-567.77 was declared worthless, and deleted from the inventory.

The first 7 annual accounts for the years commencing in 1955 to July 1, 1962, were each properly noticed for hearing and allowed by the probate court. There were no objections to these accounts and no appeals taken from the orders allowing1 them. The net income was annually distributed to the widow and father of the testator as reported in these accounts wherein income and disbursements were reported on a cash basis and allocated to income. Por the last 3 annual periods both income trust beneficiaries signed receipts in the following form:

“Received of Luman H.

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Related

In Re Gray Estate
156 N.W.2d 594 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1967)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
156 N.W.2d 594, 9 Mich. App. 262, 1967 Mich. App. LEXIS 424, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/globensky-v-st-joseph-benton-harbor-memorial-hospital-michctapp-1967.