In re the Estate of Pulitzer

152 Misc. 554, 274 N.Y.S. 907, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1747
CourtNew York Surrogate's Court
DecidedAugust 17, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 152 Misc. 554 (In re the Estate of Pulitzer) 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 Pulitzer, 152 Misc. 554, 274 N.Y.S. 907, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1747 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1934).

Opinion

Foley, S.

A further question of the construction of the will and codicils of the testator arises in this proceeding. The controversy involves the so-called Newspaper Trust ” created by Mr. Pulitzer. Prior decisions construing the terms of the testamentary instruments respecting this trust may be found in Matter of Pulitzer (139 Misc. 575; affd., 237 App. Div. 808) and in my supplemental decision in Matter of Pulitzer (40 Misc. 572; affd., 237 App. Div. 808).

The assets of the trust consisted of the stock of the Pulitzer Pubhshing Company of St. Louis, Mo., which pubhshed the Post Dispatch, and the stock of the Press Pubhshing Company of New York, which pubhshed the World and the Evening World.

In my former decision (139 Misc. 575; affd., supra) I discussed and determined various questions raised by the trustees as to the construction of the will and codicils and the propriety, price and manner of sale of the newspapers and other assets of the Press Pubhshing Company. Four main questions were presented at that time, but one of them is not material in the pending proceeding. The three remaining questions were as follows:

(a) Regardless of any prohibition or limitation contained in the will and codicils, had the trustees, in the then existing exigency, power and authority to sell the assets of a company, the stock of which was included in the trust?

(b) If a prohibition was contained in the will, had the Surrogate’s Court, under its equitable jurisdiction, the power to modify the terms of the trust and authorize the sale of such assets by the trustees?

(c) Did the proofs submitted to the surrogate justify the exercise of that power in the emergency?

In answer to these three questions, I held that the trustees, as corporate officers and holders of the estate stock, had the power and general authority to participate in the sale of the property of the Press Pubhshing Company, and that the equitable powers of the Surrogate’s Court should be invoked to generally authorize them to make such a sale. I held further that there was an implied power of sale in the will which in the then existing crisis might be exercised by the trustees and that the proofs presented to the surrogate as to the financial condition of the company, its diminishing assets and increasing loss of revenue created a duty in the trustees to act for the protection of the beneficiaries of the trust.

Pursuant to this decision the newspapers and certain other assets were sold by the Press Pubhshing Company.

The immediate question here involves the power of the children of Mr. Pulitzer, under the provisions of article eleventh of the [556]*556first codicil and article twenty-first of the will, (a) to appoint the remainder of the stock of the Press Publishing Company, or (b) to appoint the remainder of the stock of the Pulitzer Publishing Company or the proceeds of its sale.

In my opinion, no power of appointment exists in any of the children of the testator, over the stock of either of these companies or the proceeds of the sale of the stock of the Pulitzer Pubhshing Company.

As to the Press Publishing Company the basis of my determination that no power of appointment exists, is the fact that the power of appointment contained in article eleventh of the first codicil was inseparably interwoven with those provisions of the will and codicil which directed the continued publication of the newspapers and anticipated a plan of management by certain specially selected male descendants after the termination of the trust. It is significant also that the special power of appointment which dealt with the disposition of the Press Pubhshing Company stock was not included in the will but was added by the first codicil. In that instrument also the direction to continue publication was enlarged and made more emphatic than in the will. The command of the testator in the first codicil reads as follows: I particularly enjoin upon my sons and my descendants the duty of preserving, perfecting and perpetuating ‘ The World 1 newspaper, (to the maintenance and upbuilding of which I have sacrificed my health and strength) in the same spirit in which I have striven to create and conduct it as a public institution, from motives higher than mere gain, it having been my desire that it should be at all times conducted in a spirit of independence and with a view to inculcating high standards and public spirit among the people and their official representatives, and it is my earnest wish that said newspaper shall hereafter be conducted upon the same principles.”

The provisions of article eleventh of the first codicil created a limited and distinctive power of appointment in the children of Mr. Pulitzer over the stock of the Press Publishing Company, but this power was clearly conditioned upon the continued publication of the nevzspapers and contemplated the retention of the newspapers as assets of the company until the termination of the trust. The testator had planned an extensive and elaborate arrangement for the continued family control of the New York World by his male descendants. That control was plainly designed to last as long as our statute against perpetuities would permit. It was planned further that after the expiration of the trust, the management of the newspapers would become vested in certain specially selected male descendants. So long as these New York newspapers would continue to be published, the dead hand of

[557]*557Mr. Pulitzer, under his testamentary plan, would control their management. Economic necessity destroyed Mr. Pulitzer’s program, and along with the imperative sale of the principal assets of the Press Publishing Company, every restriction contained in the will and codicils relating to the appointment of the stock and management of the newspapers was nullified. Thus, there were certain provisions of the Newspaper Trust ” which permitted participation by the editors or managers of the World in the income of the trust fund. These provisions necessarily failed when the newspapers were sold and when their publication was surrendered by the trustees of the estate. (Matter of Pulitzer, 140 Misc. 572; affd., 237 App. Div. 808.)

A parallel situation occurs, not infrequently, in probate courts. A devise of the home of the testator is made in trust or upon legal life estate, with the privilege to his children or other members of the family to occupy the dwelling. The testamentary restrictions or privileges become of no effect, where the property has been disposed of by voluntary sale under the terms of the will, or by compulsory disposition under the law. When the realty ceases to become an asset of the estate, the subordinate conditions in the will attached to its use are rendered ineffective and the courts, in the absence of specific directions of the testator, are powerless to supply substitute benefits.

No impairment of the general plan for the inheritance of the remainder results from the nullification of this special power of appointment, since the testator provided in article sixth of the first codicil for a thorough and comprehensive plan for the vesting of the remainder which operates completely in the absence of the exercise of the power of appointment.

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Related

In re the Accounting of the National Commercial Bank & Trust Co.
40 Misc. 2d 803 (New York Supreme Court, 1963)
In re the Judicial Settlement of the Account of Proceedings of Pulitzer
245 A.D. 720 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
152 Misc. 554, 274 N.Y.S. 907, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1747, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-estate-of-pulitzer-nysurct-1934.