In Re: H.K., Appeal of: P.J.

2025 Pa. Super. 295
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 31, 2025
Docket637 EDA 2024
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 Pa. Super. 295 (In Re: H.K., Appeal of: P.J.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re: H.K., Appeal of: P.J., 2025 Pa. Super. 295 (Pa. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

J-A12001-25

2025 PA Super 295

IN RE: HESS KLINE, DECEASED : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : APPEAL OF: P.J. : : : : : : No. 637 EDA 2024

Appeal from the Order Entered December 6, 2023 In the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County Orphans' Court at No: 1988 X3737

BEFORE: STABILE, J., SULLIVAN, J., and LANE, J.

OPINION BY STABILE, J.: FILED DECEMBER 31, 2025

Appellant, P.J., appeals from the December 6, 2023, order denying his

petition for an accounting. We affirm.

The record reveals that decedent Hess Kline’s will (the “Will”) divided

his residuary estate into marital and nonmarital portions, each governed by a

trust. This litigation arises from the nonmarital trust. Hess died in 1985, and

his wife, Helyn, died in 1988. Upon Helyn’s death, the undistributed income

from the nonmarital trust was divided into equal shares for the Kline’s two

daughters, Barbara Ann Eldridge and Denise Jo Levy, per the instructions in

the Will. Each daughter’s portion is governed by a trust, as set forth in the

Will. The instant action pertains to Denise Jo Levy’s Trust (the “Trust”). Levy

is the income beneficiary during her lifetime. Appellant is Levy’s son. He is

one of three contingent remainder beneficiaries of the Trust, along with his J-A12001-25

brothers, S.J. and W.J. The three brothers will divide the principal among

them upon Levy’s death.

Appellant’s petition for an accounting was directed at Robert I. Friedman

(the “Trustee”), the current successor co-trustee along with Levy. Levy, S.J.,

and W.J. have not participated in this action. In his petition, Appellant alleged

that, since 2020, the net income of Levy’s trust was $37,940.00 and the

distributions to Levy were $70,650.00. Petition for Accounting, 1/30/23, at

¶ 16.1 The question before us is whether the distributions to Levy were

authorized under the terms of the governing instrument and/or the Uniform

Principal and Income Act (“UPIA”), 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 8101 et. seq. Appellant

claims the Trustee made distributions from the Trust’s principal in violation of

the express terms of the governing instrument. The Trustee denies that he

made any disbursements from principal. Rather, the Trustee claims he made

lawful adjustments between principal and income as authorized under the

governing instrument and under the UPIA. The orphans’ court, basing its

ruling on the submitted record as per the parties’ agreement, found in favor

of Trustee and entered the order presently before us.

Appellant filed this timely appeal in which he presents two questions:

____________________________________________

1 The Trustee filed his answer and new matter on March 23, 2023. By order of June 27, 2023, the parties agreed to submit this matter to the orphans’ court on briefs.

-2- J-A12001-25

Whether the lower court erred in ruling the power to adjust between principal and income under 20 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 8301-8304 was authorized under the trust instrument?

Whether the lower court erred in approving the fiduciary’s adjustment between principal and income?

Appellant’s Brief at 6.

On review of a decision from an orphans’ court, we must determine

whether the orphans’ court committed an error of law and whether the record

supports the orphans’ court’s findings of fact. In re Estate of J.L.C., 321

A.3d 999, 1003 (Pa. Super. 2024). Because the orphans’ court sits as finder

of fact, we are deferential to the court’s findings of fact and credibility

determinations. Id.

With his first argument, Appellant claims the Trust instrument expressly

forbids distribution from principal except in emergencies. Appellant argues

that the UPIA does not apply in this case because its terms conflict with those

of the Trust instrument and because the enactment of the UPIA postdates the

creation of the Trust. Our primary goal in interpreting a trust instrument is to

effect the settlor’s intent. In re Wilton, 921 A.2d 509, 513 (Pa. Super. 2007).

We determine the settlor’s intent by examining “all the language within the

four corners of the trust instrument, the scheme of distribution[,] and the

circumstances surrounding the execution of the instrument.” In re Peterson

Family Irrevocable Trust, 333 A.3d 453, 458 (Pa. Super. 2025). “Only

when the language of the trust is ambiguous or conflicting or when the

settlor’s intent cannot be garnered from the trust language do the tenets of

-3- J-A12001-25

trust construction become applicable.” Id. The interpretation of a trust

document is a question of law; our standard of review is de novo and our

scope of review is plenary. Id. at 457. Further, the UPIA provides that a

fiduciary shall administer a trust or estate “in accordance with the governing

instrument, even if there is a different provision in this chapter.” 20 Pa.C.S.A.

§ 8103(a)(1).

Thus, we begin with an analysis of the pertinent language in the

governing instrument:

1. My Trustees shall distribute to each daughter all of the net income of her trust in convenient periodic installments.

2. My Trustees may also distribute to a daughter, or apply for her benefit, from time to time, such portion or portions of the principal of her trust as my Trustees, in their absolute discretion, may deem necessary for any emergency affecting such daughter, taking into account her income and assets from all other sources. It is my intention that principal distributions be made to a daughter only under the most extraordinary circumstances and I do not anticipate the probability that any principal distributions will be required.

3. Upon the death of a daughter (or upon the death of the survivor of my wife and myself if a daughter is not then living), the balance of principal and undistributed income, if any, then remaining of her trust shall be divided into as many equal shares as there are children of each said daughter then living and children of each said daughter then deceased who have left issue then living. [….]

Will, Article Sixth, ¶¶ (D)(1-3) (emphasis added).2

2 The Will appears in the certified record as Exhibit A to Appellant’s January 30, 2023 petition. The Trust instrument is included in the text of the Will.

-4- J-A12001-25

Appellant argues that the bold portion of Article Sixth plainly forbids

invasion of the principal barring an emergency, and that no such emergency

justified the principal distributions to Levy in this case. Appellant is correct in

this regard, but the Trustee does not rely on Article Sixth and does not dispute

the absence of an emergency. The Trustee and the orphans’ court rely instead

upon language in the instrument that addresses adjustments between

principal and income:

My fiduciaries, in their absolute discretion, shall have the authority to claim items of deduction in either the income tax returns or estate tax return, as they may decide, without the consent of the beneficiaries, without liability on their part for so doing, and, in their discretion, to make or not make adjustments or apportionments among the beneficiaries or as between principal and income.

Id. at Article Ninth (emphasis added). The Trustee claims he made an

equitable adjustment between principal and income and, therefore, that he

did not make a distribution from principal.

Appellant argues that Article Ninth, in its reference to adjustment of

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