In re the Estate of Brewster

163 Misc. 820, 298 N.Y.S. 761, 1937 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1771
CourtNew York Surrogate's Court
DecidedJuly 13, 1937
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 163 Misc. 820 (In re the Estate of Brewster) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Surrogate's Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Estate of Brewster, 163 Misc. 820, 298 N.Y.S. 761, 1937 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1771 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1937).

Opinion

Feely, S.

Out of the principal of this $200,000 trust fund, some bonds, to mature October 1, 1947, subject to prior call, worth $10,000 at par, were purchased in 1929 by the trustee at $11,187.50; and were called in and paid off October 1, 1936, at $10,500. Meantime part of this cost, to wit, seven-eighteenths, or $461.41, had been repaid to principal out of income, in installments, leaving outstanding now a balance of $226.09 needed to restore the principal, which balance the trustee-beneficiary claims should be borne by the principal, over the objection of the special guardian for some of the remaindermen, the claim being that a different rule applies when a bond is called, at or above par, but at less than cost, before maturity than applies, if there were no call, under the so-called sinking fund rule for the amortization of the advance out of principal for the premium and its restoration to principal.

The general rule may be regarded as having been already settled when the Court of Appeals in 1907, in Matter of Stevens (187 N. Y. 471), said (at p. 476): “ ‘While we admit * * * that the terms of the will may be such as to take a case without the general rule that the principal of the fund must be preserved intact, we think that to justify such an exception to the rule the intent sTiould be expressed in the very clearest manner. If we are to lay down the doctrine that the question is to be determined on the peculiar facts and language of each particular case, no trustee will know how to act safely, and a question constantly arising in the administration of estates will be involved in great confusion and be the cause of great litigation, the latter often at an expense to the estate greater than the sum involved. Such a result would prove very unfortunate. * * *

We, therefore, adhere to the rule declared in the Baker Case [New York Life Ins. & Trust Co. v. Baker, 165 N. Y. 484], that in the absence of a clear direction in the will * * * where investments are made by the trustee, the principal must be maintained intact from loss by payment of premium on securities having only a definite term to run.”

From this point of view, this testator’s last will gives no hint of his intention beyond what might be inferred from the fact that he set up in 1877 a trust for the benefit of his widow and their two infant daughters, both of whom were then under the age of ten years, on a corpus of about $35,000, giving the widow the right of testamentary appointment over the third from which she was to have the income during her life; whereas each of the thirds for the daughters was to yield them income for their lives, with remainder over to their heirs, or failing such, then to his own heirs, without the daughters having any similar or express interest whatever in [822]*822the corpus such as the widow was given. At best, hers was but a dry right as respects any personal enjoyment by her during her lifetime either of income, or of principal, if a power of invasion were conferred, such as was given in Matter of Fisk ([1904] 45 Misc. 298); but not even a like power to appoint was given to the children herein. It is very doubtful that testator ever foresaw the sudden increase in value that occurred forty years after his death in 1877. He apparently left on the children the burden of keeping the principal intact, which now is no hardship in view of the recently augmented corpus (Gould v. Gould, 126 Misc. 54), and income.

Had this instant claim been raised by the widow, now dead, possibly some support for her claim might have been found in her status alone, upon the liberal interpretation that was commonly given to provision for a widow. However, the children ■— of whom this trustee-beneficiary is now the sole survivor, to whom all the income, generally speaking, has been paid — had no power of appointment, nor of invasion for any purpose. Thus, in its present application, this testator’s will fails both to rise above implications, and also to give the very clear direction ” which public policy now requires. (Matter of Stevens, supra.)

In a ruling made in the year before the Stevens decision, it had been said that where the will directed the purchase of certain securities for a trust to pay income to testator’s daughters for their lives, with remainder over to their children, that very slight indications ” would suffice to support a ruling favorable to the daughters in respect to their being deemed to be entitled to the entire income, with the result that the principal would have to bear the premiums absolutely. (Lynde v. Lynde, [1906] 113 App. Div. 411.) But a different result had already been reached in 1901, in the case of New York Life Ins. & Trust Co. v. Baker (165 N. Y. 484), where although the income of a trust was given to a son for his life, with remainder over to his children, the income was required to make good the principal for the advance to pay premiums on securities bought by the trustee. So, it was this ruling that was reaffirmed in 1907 in the Stevens case (supra), in a manner that should leave no doubt thereafter as to the law in such matters.

Thus, the present question is narrowed to the inquiry whether the fact that this security was called in and paid before its fixed date of maturity presents any different situation as regards depleting principal than if no such call had been made, and payment came at the fixed date of maturity. Concededly, when the trustee bought these bonds he must have known that they were subject to being called in for payment, at the option of the obligor, before the fixed maturity. “ It is common knowledge that some securities, [823]*823such as government bonds selling at a premium, are quoted in newspapers as yielding a specified rate to their call date.” (Old Colony Trust Loan v. Comstock, [Mass.] 195 N. E. 389.)

The bonds were not called in until last autumn. Up until then the sole beneficiary had acquiesced in the proportionate abatement of her income based on the full term of the security. No loss to corpus was directly caused thereby, as her income is relatively abundant; nor can the beneficiary be said to have estopped herself to claim that in the peculiar circumstances of this case, the corpus should now bear the portion of principal still outstanding. (See Matter of Schaefer, 178 App. Div. 117.)

The counsel for the trustee-beneficiary contends for a conclusion which would have to be adopted if the ruling made in 1881 by the Supreme Court in Farwell v. Tweddle (10 Abb. N. C. 94) were still to be recognized as binding where general principle, rather than manifest, particular intention, were the sole reason for decision. This report is silent as to the terms of the will beyond stating a trustee was to pay income for life; and that he bought United States 6s at a considerable premium. Later the Treasury, under its privilege to call the bond for payment after five and before twenty years, paid off these bonds at par. It was there held that if the bonds had been absolutely payable at the time when called in, the loss of premium would have been chargeable on the income; but the privilege of paying before maturity, being a contingency for which no calculation could be made, the calling of the bonds was a misfortune ” to be borne by the principal, to which must be charged the excess of loss over what would have been sustained if the bonds had run to maturity.

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Bluebook (online)
163 Misc. 820, 298 N.Y.S. 761, 1937 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1771, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-estate-of-brewster-nysurct-1937.