Huntress v. Allen

80 N.E. 949, 195 Mass. 226, 1907 Mass. LEXIS 1281
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedApril 22, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 80 N.E. 949 (Huntress v. Allen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Huntress v. Allen, 80 N.E. 949, 195 Mass. 226, 1907 Mass. LEXIS 1281 (Mass. 1907).

Opinion

Rugg, J.

The plaintiffs state in their first bill that they are ready and willing to terminate the trust created by the tenth clause, so far as it relates to the interest of James F. Hanley, and offer to pay the same into court or to such persons as the court may order. All other legatees interested in the trust clause and Thomas Allen and the Karsch Brewing Company are parties to this proceeding.

The second suit is by the same plaintiffs in the same capacity, and joins the same parties as defendants. This bill states that Frederick J. Hanley, one of the beneficiaries under said will, died in May, 1904, leaving one child, Gertrude E. Hanley, who now claims that part 'of the residuary estate devised to Frederick, and avers that the trustees are ready to terminate the trust so far as it relates to Frederick J. Hanley and Gertrude, his daughter, and prays for instructions as to the persons to whom the legacy shall be paid. Both suits were referred to a master, who found that on October 7, 1900, James F. Hanley and Frederick J. Hanley each signed their several notes for $2,000 to the order of Thomas Allen, and each secured the payment thereof by the’ execution and delivery of a mortgage or assignment of his interest in his father’s estate, and that these instruments were delivered to Allen on the following day, and that on December 19, 1902, Allen duly assigned and transferred to the Karsch Brewing Company all the right, title and interest in the estate of Patrick T. Hanley acquired by him under said two mortgages, and delivered to it the notes. This assignment was to secure the payment of a loan of $2,700 made to him by the company.

I. In the second case the master ruled, upon the facts found, that Frederick J. Hanley, having deceased before the termination of the trust, leaving, as his only issue, Gertrude E. Hanley, she was entitled, upon the termination of the trust, to his share in the estate, and that Allen and the Karsch Brewing Company took nothing by the Frederick J. Hanley mortgage and note. [232]*232To this ruling objections were duly made and exceptions seasonably taken to the master’s report and filed by Allen and the Karsch Brewing Company, and this case comes before us on a reservation upon the pleadings, the master’s report and the exceptions thereto of the Karsch Brewing Company. The question raised is whether under clause tenth of the will of Patrick T. Hanley the interest of his son, Frederick J. Hanley, upon the latter’s death, vested in Gertrude E. Hanley to the exclusion of any rights acquired under the mortgage and assignment to Allen and the Karsch Brewing Company. Paragraph (y) expresses a plain desire on the part of the testator that, until the termination of the trust respecting any of his children in one of the ways pointed out in the succeeding paragraphs of the will, the share of such child in the income and body of the fund shall be free from any interference by creditors. That such a testamentary intent will be given full effect has been decided by Broadway National Bank v. Adams, 133 Mass. 170, and the many cases following it, the last being Alexander v. MePeck, 189 .Mass. 34. The will in other paragraphs created for Frederick J. Hanley a vested interest in a contingent remainder. Cummings v. Stearns, 161 Mass. 506. Minot v. Purrington, 190 Mass. 336. His interest, whether assigned or not, was liable to be divested by the happening of the contingency. Wainwright v. Sawyer, 150 Mass. 168. The death of Frederick J. Hanley at the age of twenty-nine, before the termination of the trust, leaving the respondent Gertrude as his only issue, is the contingency, which the testator had in mind in phrasing paragraph (/). An ingenious argument has been plausibly urged that clause (y) creates a vested interest, and that the word “ or ” in clause (y) should be construed as “ and,” and that therefore the contingencies contemplated by clauses (y) and (A) did not happen to Frederick, and hence his interest in the fund belongs to Allen and the Karsch Brewing Company to the extent of their claims. But this argument is not sound. The testator manifested a clear intention that nothing should vest finally, free from the possibility of divestment, in any of his children, until the happening of the contingencies described in paragraph (A) or (i).

2. The master ruled in the first case that if James F. Hanley [233]*233should be living afc the termination of the trust, the Karsch Brewing Company, if then the owner of the James F. Hanley note and mortgage, would be entitled to the sum, of $2,000 out of the share of the trust estate belonging to James F. Hanley, with interest. Objections to this ruling appear to have been filed with the master by James F. Hanley, but no exceptions were taken to the report. A final decree was entered, in accordance with this finding of the master, but it contains no paragraph as to the disposition of the balance of the fund due James F. Hanley, after satisfying the claim of the Karsch Brewing Company. From this decree James F. Hanley appealed. He appears to have overlooked the provisions of Chancery Rules 31 and 32 of this court, although he complied with rule 31 to the extent of bringing in written objections to the master, which were appended to the report. In order to enable him to present to this court his rights saved by objections to the report, he must comply with the further provisions of these rules, and file his exceptions founded upon the objections within fifteen days from the filing of the report, and these exceptions must briefly and clearly specify the matter, to which he excepted. There is, therefore, nothing before us on his. objections. Boosa v. Davis, 175 Mass. 117. Sillier v. Farrell, 185 Mass. 434. It is still open to the appellant, however, to raise the question whether such a decree properly could be entered upon the pleadings and report, and his substantial rights appear thus to be preserved. Dwyer v. Bratkoysky, 170 Mass. 502. It is contended in behalf of James F. Hanley that, inasmuch as paragraph (g) of clause tenth of the will creates a spendthrift trust, under Broadway National Bank v. Adams, 133 Mass. 170, there can be no diversion of the amount that may be due him upon the termination of the trust from his hands to those of his creditors. Reading this clause as a whole, and discovering the intent of the testator from all its subdivisions, paragraph Qg) appears to apply to the alphabetical paragraphs which precede it. Paragraphs (5), (e), (d) and (e) authorize the trustees in some wholly discretionary respects to make advancements out of the income and body of the fund for the benefit of the several beneficiaries, while (/) authorizes the accumulation of income. These paragraphs, including (</), contemplate the continuance of the trust. The succeeding [234]*234paragraphs, (A), (i), (/) and (/c), look to the termination of the trust under various conditions. If it had been the desire of the testator to protect the beneficiaries from their own improvidence, as expressed by a mortgage or assignment, or from the interference of creditors in any other way at the time of the final distribution, he naturally would have placed a paragraph expressing that intent at the end of his directions as to the final distribution upon the termination of the trust, rather than at the end of those paragraphs, which relate solely to its continued administration. He also would have used language unequivocally expressive of such intention.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
80 N.E. 949, 195 Mass. 226, 1907 Mass. LEXIS 1281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huntress-v-allen-mass-1907.