In re Insurance Trust of Samson

660 A.2d 592, 442 Pa. Super. 545
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 28, 1995
StatusPublished

This text of 660 A.2d 592 (In re Insurance Trust of Samson) 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 Insurance Trust of Samson, 660 A.2d 592, 442 Pa. Super. 545 (Pa. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

POPOVICH, Judge:

This case involves an appeal from the orders (consolidated for appeal purposes) of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Orphans’ Court Division, approving the sale of trust property excepted to by the appellant, Richard C. Beinhauer. We affirm.

The record discloses that on December 5, 1967, Howard S. Samson (settlor) created an “Insurance Trust Agreement” whereby the trustees1 were to hold certain policies of insurance on the settlor’s life in trust, and the proceeds were made payable to the trustees as beneficiaries. The trustees also had the power to invest assets of the trust and distribute income to the wife (75%) and daughter (25%) on a quarterly basis. The principal could be invaded by the trustees and paid to the wife if deemed advisable. Further, the Trust was to terminate after the passage of 21 years “following the death of the survivor of the [settlor’s] wife and all his issue living at his death or until the prior death of all the [settlor’s] issue.” The remainder interest was transferrable to three charitable organizations.

Article Five (A) of the Trust Agreement reserved to the trustees the power to sell the trust corpus for a price deemed reasonable [593]*593by the trustees, but in no event was the sale to be made “to any person ... who is a resident of Allegheny or to any corporation doing business in Allegheny County.”

With the settlor’s death and his wife’s advancing years, the trustees decided to sell the real estate held by the Trust and distribute the proceeds to Ms. Samson. After conducting a nationwide search, the trustees located a buyer (appellant) offering a fair price (1.3 million dollars) for the settlor’s stocks and real estate holdings. In advance of completing the sale, however, the trustees interpreted Article Five (A)’s geographical exclusion of Allegheny County residents or corporations doing business therein from the sphere of potential purchasers to necessitate court approval of the sale to the appellant, who met the latter exclusionary criterion.

Toward that end, a “Petition For Leave To Consummate Sale” was filed to secure the court’s approval to sell to the appellant because of his business activities in Allegheny County. See Paragraph 10. A date was set to hear argument on the appellant’s Petition. Prior thereto, however, one Bernard E. Stoecklein objected to the Petition and submitted a bid of 1.4 million dollars.

By order dated March 11, 1994, the Orphans’ Court ruled that the Sales Agreement between the trustees and the appellant was “contingent”, and case law authorized it to “evaluate all offers” where a trust sale was pending. Exceptions by the appellant were dismissed, and the March 11th order was rendered final for appeal purposes. The same occurred with regard to the Orphans’ Court’s April 13th (denial of the appellant’s preliminary objections) and May 12th (authorization of oral auction in open court) orders, all of which were consolidated by this Court for appeal purposes.2

Initially, we are asked to consider whether the Orphans’ Court exceeded its authority in refusing to grant the “Petition for Consummation” of the Sales Agreement between the appellant and the trustees after concluding that the geographical restriction in the Trust Agreement did not apply to preclude the sale to the appellant.

In support of his position, the appellant argues that 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 3360(a) prescribes only two instances in which a court may intervene to consider subsequent offers made to a trustee; to-wit:

... first, where the transaction can only be accomplished with court approval, such as where the transaction is prohibited by the trust agreement, or second, where the parties “specifically provide for prior approval of the terms of sale.” Because neither of these exceptions applies here, judicial intervention was not permissible in this case.

Appellant’s Brief at 17-18. We disagree and begin our explanation of the same with Section 3360(a), which provides in pertinent part:

(a) Inadequacy of consideration or better offer. — When a personal representative shall make a contract not requiring approval of court, or when the court shall approve a contract of a personal representative requiring approval of the court, neither inadequacy of consideration, nor the receipt of an offer to deal on other terms shall, except as otherwise agreed by the parties, relieve the personal representative of the obligation to perform his contract or shall constitute ground for any court to set aside the contract, or to refuse to enforce it by specific performance or otherwise. Provided that this subsection shall not affect or change the inherent right of the court to set aside a contract for fraud, accident or mistake. Nothing in this subsection shall affect the liability of a personal representative for surcharge on the ground of negligence or bad faith in making a contract.

20 Pa.C.S.A. § 3360(a).

This Court has had occasion to apply Section 3360(a) to a scenario in which an Orphans’ Court refused to approve the sale of real estate to a prospective buyer (North Fork, Inc.), even though an executor had petitioned for approval of the sale as required by the terms of the Agreement where a subsequent buyer (Stabler Development [594]*594Corp.) had made a higher offer for the same property. See In re Estate of Lazarus, 420 Pa.Super. 379, 616 A.2d 1023 (1992), allocatur denied, 534 Pa. 649, 627 A.2d 179 (1993).

On appeal, in affirming the Orphans’ Court, the Lazarus Court made some observations which are instructive as to the course to pursue at bar; to-wit:

... section 3360(a) deals specifically with only two situations: (1) when a personal representative shall make a contract not requiring court approval, or (2) when a court has already approved a contract of a personal representative requiring court approval. The present ease falls under neither category. The contract between the Executor and North Fork, Inc., does not fall into category one since the contract did not require court approval. While the second category under that section does deal with contracts requiring court approval, as did the North Fork contract, when read carefully, and in its entirety, it is clear that the type of situation falling within the second category of section 3360(a) is most succinctly interpreted by our Supreme Court in Estate of Penrose, 486 Pa. 9, 403 A.2d 982 (1979).
* * * * * *
In addressing the possible applicability of section 3360(a) to the case before it, the Penrose court stated:
Any suggestion that section 3360(a) of the Probate, Estates and Fiduciaries Code, 20 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 101 et seq., precluded the court’s consideration of the [subsequently made] Keeley offer in determining whether to approve the R & R [initial] agreement is without legal or factual basis.
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In [In re] Curtis Estate, supra, this court stated:
The Act of May 24, 1945, P.L. 944, 20 P.S. §§ 818, 819 [now section 33601, specifically addresses itself to situations in which it appears

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Related

In Re the Estate of Penrose
403 A.2d 982 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1979)
In re Estate of Lazarus
616 A.2d 1023 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1992)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
660 A.2d 592, 442 Pa. Super. 545, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-insurance-trust-of-samson-pasuperct-1995.