Hays's Estate

7 Pa. D. & C. 567, 1926 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 378
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County
DecidedApril 30, 1926
DocketNo. 2249
StatusPublished

This text of 7 Pa. D. & C. 567 (Hays's Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hays's Estate, 7 Pa. D. & C. 567, 1926 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 378 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1926).

Opinions

Thompson, J.,

The testatrix by her will gave her estate to her husband as trustee to dispose of the income by way of annuities, etc., during life; and directed that upon his death her estate “shall be distributed among such of my children as may then be living and the issue of such of them as may then be dead, in such shares and upon such trusts as my said husband may by his last will and testament direct. But if my said husband die without having made such testamentary disposition, then I direct that my said residuary estate shall be distributed in equal shares among such of my children as may then be living and the issue of such of them as may then be dead,” etc.

Testatrix left surviving her husband and four children, and the latter are still living, so that no question of issue of deceased children at present arises. The husband is deceased; and by his will appointed the income from his wife’s estate “in precise conformity to the plan of distribution of income” from his own estate, which latter he gave in equal shares, under spendthrift provisions, to the children living at his death, issue of deceased children taking the parent’s share, during the respective lives of such children and their issue, the share of income of any child or grandchild dying childless to go to and be divided among the survivors of the class until the death of the last survivor; made certain provisions with respect'to the occupancy of the joint residence of himself and his wife, which, however, was the Wife’s property; and appointed the principal, upon the extinction of his inheritable blood, to such person, persons or other beneficiaries as his daughter Sarah Minis Goodrich should by will appoint,, and in default of appointment then according to the will of his oldest surviving child, and so on in order of seniority.

[572]*572At the audit the four children asked that the trust estates' be terminated and the fund be awarded absolutely to them. This was on the ground that, so far as the remainders were appointed at all, the appointment was in excess of the power and was void, and the remainders were vested in them in default of appointment. It was argued that the Whole plan of the testator was destroyed with the failure of the appointment in remainder, that the life estates fell as an incident to the plan and that the children, therefore, took a fee in the whole as in default of appointment.

The Auditing Judge held that the remainders were vested in fee in the children, but that the good part of the appointment, if any, could be separated from the bad; and that the trusts of income were good and must be preserved to protect the spenthrift features. If the trusts of income are good, we think that the rest of the conclusion follows for the reasons given by the Auditing Judge: Lawrence’s Estate, 136 Pa. 354; Whitman’s Estate, 248 Pa. 285; Johnson’s Estate, 276 Pa. 291; Ledwith v. Hurst, 284 Pa. 94, and Jones’s Trust, 284 Pa. 90.

The question whether the trusts of income are within the power requires further consideration.

It was argued that by her will the testatrix parted with her right of dominion over her estate in favor of her children; but, is this broad .statement an accurate interpretation of the will? True, death ends the dominion of a decedent over his estate; in intestacy, to those appointed by the intestate laws, and in cases of testacy, to those upon whom the testator confers that dominion.

The testatrix does not in terms give her estate ultimately to any one; the gift is implied merely from the direction—not to the donee of the power, but—to the trustee to distribute. Until the time of distribution arrives the testatrix reserved her dominion, except to the extent that that dominion is to be exercised by the donee of the power in directing shares and trusts among children then living and issue of deceased children. The very fact that not all of testatrix’s children, or all of their issue, living at her death are, at all events, to take at the time of distribution, viz., the death of the husband, but only those then living, shows that, even under the gift over, the remainders are contingent during the lifetime of the donee of the power (Groninger’s Estate, 268 Pa. 184) ; and the fee is in the trustee. It shows further that the dominion of testatrix over her estate is meanwhile delegated to the donee of the power. And what is there in the language of the will, that confers the power to create trusts, to indicate that that dominion is not intended to be co-extensive with the dominion of the donor? True, as said in Horwitz v. Norris, 49 Pa. 213, 217, the donee “could not appoint estates or uses which the donor of the power could not have created by his will;” but, what is there in our law that prevents a testator from declaring spendthrift ■trusts?

Sugden on Powers (3rd American Ed.), LL. 252, states: “He (the donee) cannot annex any condition for his own benefit; nor can the property appointed be exempted by the donee of the power from the debts of the appointee.” But neither, under English law, can the donor. In Norris v. Johnston, 5 Pa. 287, it is said that “in England the power of alienation is considered an inseparable incident to the right of property in anything. . . . An individual disposed to provide for an improvident son or relation limits the interest intended to be granted him for his sole use during his life, and provides that his interest shall be forfeited if he transfers or assigns, or if it should be taken for his debts; in either event, it is limited over, or reverts. By this means [573]*573the creditor, the alienee, and the object of the bounty, lose the benefit of the devise or gift. Here, however, the donation is preserved to the recipient, upon the conditions and limitations on which it is given.”

And in Moore’s Estate, 198 Pa. 611, 612, it is .said by Judge Penrose, upon whose opinion the decision of this court in sustaining a spendthrift trust was affirmed: “The right of alienation, whether by voluntary act or by adverse proceeding, is an inseparable incident of ownership in fee, and, in consequence, where the beneficiary is entitled to the absolute interest, such a trust cannot be created (Keyser’s Appeal, 57 Pa. 236); but it is not an inseparable incident of a life estate (4 Kent, 131); and, hence, the manifest distinction.”

And in line with this principle is Morgan’s Estate (No. 1), 223 Pa. 228, where it was not the exercise of the powter by the donee, but the attempted creation of a spendthrift trust for the donee by the testatrix herself that was stricken down, on the ground that “the right of alienation in the present case was given the donee in unmistakable and unrestricted terms; and this of itself defeats the attempted trust.” Having granted her husband, who was the donee of the power, an absolute estate, the will of the testatrix was executed, and the donee could not revive it so as to save his estate from the grasp of creditors.

In Wickersham v. Savage, 58 Pa. 365, the testator gave a legal life estate to his son, and at his death to and among the son’s children and issue “in such .shares and proportions and for such estates as he by will or other appointment in writing should direct.” The donee had but one child, a son, and appointed the estate to that son for life, and after his death for such uses and purposes as he by will might appoint. This was held not to be a good execution of the power. The Supreme Court said: “Beyond the children and issue of John, no estate vested or was to be appointed. That it vested in them on the death of the testator will not admit of a doubt.

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Bluebook (online)
7 Pa. D. & C. 567, 1926 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 378, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hayss-estate-paorphctphilad-1926.