In re the Final Judicial Settlement of the Accounts of Niles

122 Misc. 17
CourtNew York Surrogate's Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 122 Misc. 17 (In re the Final Judicial Settlement of the Accounts of Niles) 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 Final Judicial Settlement of the Accounts of Niles, 122 Misc. 17 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1923).

Opinion

Beekman, S.

This is a proceeding for the judicial settlement of the accounts of the executors and for construction of portions of the will, and for the sale of real estate for the payment and distribution of the respective shares of the parties therein, entitled thereto, some of the parties being infants.

The decedent by her will, which was executed on the 18th day of October, 1913, first gives to certain children specific articles of household furniture.

By the 2d clause of her will she gives each of three children, including William Lynn Niles, $225 each, and then proceeds to state that after the payment of the above bequests, she gives and devises to her children, Charles O. Niles, Blanche N. Jones and Arthur Niles, each an undivided one-fourth part of her estate, real and personal, as provided in the 3d clause of her will.

The remaining one-fourth of the residuary estate is disposed [19]*19of by the 4th clause of her will, the construction of which is asked for, and which reads as follows:

“Fourth. I give, devise and bequeath to my son, Lynn Niles, the use, income and control of an equal undivided one-fourth of my property real and personal for his use and benefit during the full end and term of his natural fife, and if necessary for his support & maintenance to use of the principal herein given and devised to him he may do so, and at his death I give, devise and bequeath what remains of said one-fourth of my estate herein given to my son Lynn Niles during his life for his use and support, to my grand children living at my decease, equally share and share alike, to them and their respective heirs and assigns forever.”

It is my opinion that the executors are in this case entitled to sale of the real estate for distribution. Therefore, in consideration of the questions as to the custody of the property and the rights and interests of the parties in and to the personal and real estate, the personal property and the proceeds of the real estate will be treated as one fund, as the real estate will be turned into money and be distributed with the personal property.

The testatrix died June 3, 1921, and her will was admitted to probate on June 15, 1921, and letters testamentary issued thereon.

One of the questions which has been raised is whether under the 4th clause of the will, Lynn Niles is entitled to the possession of one-fourth of the property, that is, of the personal property and proceeds of the real estate, and whether the executors should, under the terms of the will, pay the same over to him, and if so, whether upon or without the said Lynn Niles giving a bond.

It will be observed that the testatrix gives to her son, Lynn Niles, the use, income and control of an equal undivided one-fourth, etc. The word control ” is indicative of the intention of the testatrix that Lynn Niles should have the possession, for in a certain contingency he is given the right to use of the principal.” The control of the property would necessarily imply the investment and management of it, and. to do so it would be necessary for him to have the possession of it.

Consideration will next be given to the question whether a bond should be required of the fife tenant. In Smithy. Van Ostrand, 64 N. Y. 278, where it was held that the widow not only had the right to the income but was empowered to apply the principal so far as necessary to her support, .the court uses this language (p. 281): When a fife estate is bequeathed in a sum of money, with remainder over, the legatee is entitled only to the income, and the principal, subject to the fife estate, belongs to the remainderman, and, unless otherwise directed by the will, it is the duty of the [20]*20executor either to invest the money and pay the interest to the first legatee during life, and preserve the principal for the remainder-man, or, on paying it over to the legatee, to require security from him for the protection of the remainderman in respect to the principal (Tyson v. Blake, 22 N. Y. 558). But it is within the power of the testator to dispense with these safeguards and to confide the money to the legatee for life, trusting to said legatee to preserve the fund for the benefit of the remainderman, in which case the legatee for fife becomes trustee of the principal during the continuance of the life estate.”

In Matter of Ungrich, 48 App. Div. 594; affd., 166 N. Y. 618, where the will gave to the wife “ all the rents, income and interest of all the remainder of my real and personal estate during her life with the custody and possession of all personal property of which I may die possessed,” and where no power was given her to use any of the principal, the court cited the language above quoted in Smith v. Van Ostrand, supra, and further said (p. 596): “ To the like effect is the opinion in Matter of McDougall, 141 N. Y. 21, 26, where Judge Beckham said: 1 In other cases where it has been held that the legatee was entitled unconditionally to the possession of the legacy without security, other facts existed, such as where the language of the will made it manifest that the testator intended to give to the legatee power to use in his discretion some portion of the corpus of his estate for his support, * * * or the whole scheme of the will or the terms of the particular legacy were such as to show that the testator intended to give a legacy of money for fife only, and yet clearly intended the life legatee to have possession thereof and trusted to him not to waste, use or otherwise dispose of the corpus.’ ”

In the will in the case at bar it is provided that the life tenant, Lynn Niles, shall have the control, meaning possession. In the Ungrich case the court further said: “By the clear and unambiguous terms of the will the testator has made his wife the testamentary trustee of the principal of his personal estate, for fife. In addition to the income and interest, he has given her the custody and possession of the personal property. She is, therefore, entitled to such custody and possession as such trustee and can no more be required to give security, as a matter of course, than the appellant executors could be required to give security as a condition precedent to the execution of the trust imposed in them. Before making an order for such security, said the court in Matter of Camp, 126 N. Y. 377, 385, ' there must be some fact alleged and proved tending to show the property would be unsafe and insecure in the hands of the tenant for life.’ ”

[21]*21There has been no proof or claim that Lynn Niles is incompetent, improvident or insolvent or in any way an unfit man to assume the custody of the one-fourth of the estate. It is reasonable to suppose that in case the testatrix had felt that it was unsafe to trust her son with the custody of the fund, she would not have used the word “ control,” or, in any event, she would have provided that he should give security. The will was executed on October 18, 1913, and she did not depart this life until June, 1921, and during all that time she apparently saw no reason for throwing any greater safeguards around the provision for her son, Lynn, than are expressed in the will. An exhaustive discussion of the question as to when a bond should be exacted from a fife tenant is contained in Matter of Rowland, 153 App. Div.

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Bluebook (online)
122 Misc. 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-final-judicial-settlement-of-the-accounts-of-niles-nysurct-1923.