In re the Estate of Innerfield

153 Misc. 706, 276 N.Y.S. 63, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1857
CourtNew York Surrogate's Court
DecidedDecember 12, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 153 Misc. 706 (In re the Estate of Innerfield) 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 Innerfield, 153 Misc. 706, 276 N.Y.S. 63, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1857 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1934).

Opinion

Wingate, S.

Paragraph second ” of the present will reads in part as follows: I give, devise and bequeath to my trustees hereinafter named, and such one or more of them as shall qualify, and the survivors and survivor and successor of them, the sum of twenty-five thousand ($25,000.00) dollars, in trust nevertheless for the following uses and purposes: to hold, invest and reinvest the same and to collect the rents, income, issues and profits thereof and to pay the net income thereof from the time of my death, to my beloved wife Ida for a period of five (5) years; and at the end of that time to pay to her outright and absolutely the sum of fifteen thousand ($15,000.00) dollars from the principal of the said trust fund, and to continue to pay to her the rents, income, issues and profits of the balance for a further period of five (5) years, and at the end of such period, providing my said wife has not remarried, to pay to her the entire balance of the said trust fund, together with accumulations thereof, and thereupon the said trust shall cease and determine. In the event my wife Ida remarries, the trust hereby created shall cease and determine and the principal thereof, or so much thereof as has not been paid, shall become part of my residuary estate and be disposed of in the manner hereinafter provided.”

It is urged that the trust therein declared is invalid in that thereby testator would effect a suspension of the power of alienation for an arbitrary term of years. (Pers. Prop. Law, § 11.) It is well recognized that a trust, the duration of which is measured solely by reference to a definite period of time, is invalid in that it may be of longer duration than two lives in being. (Underwood v. Curtis, 127 N. Y. 523; Kalish v. Kalish, 166 id. 368; Brown v. Quintard, 177 [708]*708id. 73; Matter of Hitchcock, 222 id. 57; Brinkerhoff v. Seabury, 137 App. Div. 916; affd., 201 N. Y. 559; Matter of Berry, 154 App. Div. 509; affd., 209 N. Y. 540; Davis v. McMahon, 161 App. Div. 458; affd., 214 N. Y. 614; Woolley v. Hutchins, 114 Misc. 11; Matter of Fitzsimmons, Id. 71; Matter of Wilber, 122 id. 472; Matter of Kuhrasch, 124 id. 117; Matter of Spitz, 129 id. 78.)

This principle, however, is without application to a situation where, although a term of years is specified, it is evident that it was the testator’s intention that the trust should in no event endure for a period longer than that sanctioned by law, and where, upon judicial construction, it is found that termination within such period is inevitable. A limitation of a trust estate for an arbitrary period of time, such as fifty years, is valid, provided a termination at an earlier period is called for by the expiration of two lives in being at the creation of the trust. If provision be made for such termination, the income of the estate may in the meantime be divided among any number of successive fives. (Phelps’ Executor v. Pond, 23 N. Y. 69.) ” (Schermerhorn v. Cotting, 131 id. 48, at p. 58.) (See, also, Montignani v. Blade, 145 id. 111; Matter of Drury, 249 id. 154; Anthony v. Van Valkenburgh, 154 App. Div. 380; Farley v. Secor, 167 id. 80; Matter of Hicks, 221 id. 378; Matter of Andrews, 133 Misc. 365; Cohen v. Wacht, 137 id. 679.) In several of these cases there is found express testamentary direction for the termination of the trust in the event of the death of the respective cestuis que trustent prior to the expiration of the period of years primarily stated as the measure of the trust term. These trusts, dependent upon fives in being or a shorter period, are not subject to the criticism attendent upon Underwood v. Curtis (supra) and cases presenting similar situations, and are consistently held to be valid. It is not essential to validity, however, that such direction for earlier termination be express; it may be implied when required to carry out the evident intent of the testator. In Farley v. Secor (supra) the Appellate Division in the Second Department wrote as follows (at p. 83): “ The direction is to pay the income to the widow ‘ for a term of five years from the date of my decease.’ It could not be paid to her. if she were not alive. Hence, it was intended that the term should fall within her fife. If she died within the time, the trust as to payment of income fell not only because the term could not extend beyond her fife, but because there would be no beneficiary of the income.” The Court of Appeals, in Matter of Drury (supra), inferentially approves this reasoning. A situation closely approximating the present is painstakingly analyzed by Mr. Justice Untermyer in Cohen v. Wacht (supra), wherein he upholds the validity of the trust provisions.

[709]*709Nowhere in the present will has the testator expressly stated that the trust under review must in any event continue for a fixed period of time irrespective of the continued existence of the beneficiary thereof; nowhere in the instrument is there indication of such a purpose. To the contrary, the general scheme of the will as well as its particular content bear testimony of the testator’s purpose that the trust should terminate in any event upon his widow’s death. The trustees are directed “ to pay the net income * * * to my beloved wife,” and again, “ to continue to pay to her ” (no italics in original); compliance wherewith would be impossible after her death. Nor is other beneficiary designated to receive the income of the trust in the event of the widow’s death prior to the expiration of the stipulated term of years — a significant omission.

In Crooke v. County of Kings (97 N. Y. 421) the Court of Appeals has emphasized the fact that a single trust may have both a natural and a stipulated term. While the facts in that case were not similar to those in the case at bar, the analogy between the situation there presented and the present one renders the logic of that decision equally applicable here. When the purpose or purposes for which a trust has been created have been accomplished, the trust is at an end. It is the decision of the court, therefore, that the provisions of the present trust which direct the trustees to pay the income thereof to the testator’s widow for a period of five years, at which time a portion of the corpus is to be given to her outright, and thereafter to pay the income of the balance of the trust corpus then remaining to her for a further like period, do not violate the rule against the suspension of alienation in that it was the intention of the testator as disclosed by his will that the trust should terminate in any event upon the death of the cestui que trust.

Matter of Hitchcock (222 N. Y. 57) is distinguishable from the present case. There the will gave repeated evidences of an intent on the part of the testator that the trust should continue in any event for a term of five years from the date of the testator’s decease, such intent being predicated upon a desire that none of the assets of the testator’s estate be sacrificed by a hasty sale.

The court next is asked to determine the identity of the remainder-man of the trust and the nature of the remainder. The phraseology of the u thirtieth ” paragraph of the will before the court in Warner v. Durant (76 N. Y.

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Bluebook (online)
153 Misc. 706, 276 N.Y.S. 63, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1857, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-estate-of-innerfield-nysurct-1934.