Goodell Estate

59 Pa. D. & C.2d 468, 1972 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 296
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Bucks County
DecidedNovember 29, 1972
Docketno. 42981
StatusPublished

This text of 59 Pa. D. & C.2d 468 (Goodell Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Bucks County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goodell Estate, 59 Pa. D. & C.2d 468, 1972 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 296 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1972).

Opinion

SATTERTHWAITE, P. J.,

The first and final account of Hilda D. Goodell and William F. Goodell, executors of the estate of said decedent, was presented to the court for audit, confirmation and distribution of ascertained balances on January 3, 1972, as advertised according to law. Said audit was duly and successively continued in open court to March 6,1972. Due proof of appropriate notice thereof to all parties legally interested in said estate appears in the record.

A hearing with respect to the Commonwealth’s claim hereinafter discussed at length was held on October 2,1972.

Said account has been examined and audited by the court. Balances for distribution shown thereby include principal in the amount of $80,400.95, composed of shares of stocks and mutual funds totalling $24,725.64 (at inventory), a bank savings account of $6,000, real estate at $24,500, personal property in kind at $2,935, a Federal savings and loan association savings certificate at $20,000 and cash of $2,240.31, and income in the amount of $767.58 in cash. Said respective balances for distribution appear to have been correctly computed and stated on the accounting filed.

Accountants submitted to be debited to income with $1,260.32 for additional dividends and interest received since the closing date of the accounting. Accountants requested and are hereby allowed additional credit against principal in the amount of $10,353.50 [470]*470for decedent’s medical bill balance ($66.50), family exemption ($1,500), executors’ commissions ($4,637), counsel fees ($4,000), and administration éxpenses ($150), and against income in the amount of $168.45 for Pennsylvania ($41.90) and United States ($126.55) income taxes, all paid since the closing date of the accounting. The respective balances for distribution shown in the account are hereby revised accordingly.

Pennsylvania transfer inheritance tax has been paid in full, and liability therefor on the appraisment filed on October 28, 1971, has been discharged, as per certificate of the register attached to the petition for adjudication.

The problems for adjudication in this audit arise out of the claim of the Commonwealth for compensation in the amount of $10,166.48 for the care and maintenance of decedent’s adult daughter, Kathryn Frances Goodell, as a patient at Norristown State Hospital in decedent’s lifetime. The amount of the claim is not disputed, but liability therefor was originally denied by accountants, with an alternative contention that if the testamentary estate should be liable, then reimbursement or contribution by reason thereof should be allowed against the distributive share bequeathed in trust by decedent for the benefit of his said daughter Kathryn during her lifetime.

Dépedent’s will, after directing payment of debts and making certain specific bequests and a devise of real estate, gives that residue one-third to his surviving widow Hilda Goodell, outright; one-third to his adopted son William Goodell, outright; and further directs:

“A one-third (V&) share unto CONTINENTAL BANK and WILLIAM GOODELL, in trust, to hold the principal of said trust, to invest and reinvest the same, and to pay the income and so much of the prin[471]*471cipal as (sic) of this trust as Trustees, in their sole .discretion, shall deem necessary for the maintenance, health, support and care of my daughter, KATHRYN FRANCES GOODELL, for her lifetime, and upon her death to transfer, convey and pay over the balance of principal and accumulated income, if any, to my adopted son, WILLIAM GOODELL.”

The will also contains a spendthrift clause, directing that

“All the shares of principal and income hereby given shall be free from anticipation, assignment, pledge or obligations of beneficiaries and shall not be subject to any execution or attachment.”

At the audit hearing held on October 2, 1972, counsel for accountants, counsel for the Commonwealth and counsel for Continental Bank as one of the trustees for the one-third share of the residue as aforesaid, stipulated at the bar of the court that the Commonwealth’s claim should be allowed by the court, but only to the extent of 75 percent thereof, leaving for adjudication the question of whether it should be charged against the estate as a general claim or should be collectible, so far as the respective beneficiaries of the estate are concerned, only out of the one-third share to be held in trust for the daughter’s life benefit. No evidence was introduced other than such stipulation, and argument briefs were submitted in support of the respective positions so indicated.

The claim of the Commonwealth as so stipulated, is hereby accordingly allowed in the amount of $7,-624.86. Arithmetical calculation of the account balances and additional receipts and credits hereinabove mentioned would indicate that, after deduction of the specific devise and bequests, there would be available for the residuary beneficiaries (before consideration of the Commonwealth’s claim) principal and income [472]*472aggregating $44,471.90. Thus, the question presented boils down to whether the $7,624.86 claim should be paid out of the net $44,471.90 residuary estate before division into thirds, or whether it should be taken solely out of the one-third trust share of $14,823.96.

There can be no question but that liability in the first instance rests upon Kathryn Frances Goodell personally for her own maintenance and support in the Norristown State Hospital: Section 501 of the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act of October 20, 1966, Special Sess., P. L. 96, 50 PS §4501. It would also seem unquestioned and tacitly assumed by all concerned in the within litigation, although there was no direct evidence on the subject, that Kathryn Frances Goodell does not have the wherewithal to discharge this liability in her own behalf and out of her own resources. Compare Commonwealth v. Heiser, Administratrix, 53 D. & C. 2d 124, 126 (1971). Accordingly, the mandate of section 502 of the act, 50 PS §4502, comes into play and liability is thereby imposed “upon any person owing a legal duty to support” such a state hospital patient. The latter requirement is explicated by the provisions of section 3 of the Act of June 1, 1915, P. L. 661, as amended, 71 PS §1783, as follows in relevant part:

“The husband, wife, father, mother, child, or children of any person who is an inmate of any . . .. [state hospital] . . . and who is legally able so to do, shall be liable to pay for the maintenance of any such person . . .”

The Act of 1915 was ostensibly repealed by section 1001 of the Mental Health Act of June 12, 1951, P. L. 533 (itself now repealed), but only “insofar as inconsistent with the provisions of [the 1951 Act].” It has been held that there is no inconsistency between the Act of 1951 and the above quoted provisions of the Act [473]*473of 1915, and that therefore the latter is still in effect and unrepealed: Rabe Estate, 437 Pa. 72, 77 (1970).

Under this legislation decedent, as a parent, would have been liable in his lifetime for his daughter’s maintenance in the State hospital, and his estate, being quite apparently “legally able so to do,” is accordingly responsible to discharge this lifetime liability after his death.

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Related

Rabe Estate
261 A.2d 603 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1970)
Boles's Estate
173 A. 664 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1934)
Walters' Case
123 A. 408 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1924)

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Bluebook (online)
59 Pa. D. & C.2d 468, 1972 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 296, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goodell-estate-pactcomplbucks-1972.