In re the Will of Shepard

186 Misc. 564, 59 N.Y.S.2d 803, 1945 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2647
CourtNew York Surrogate's Court
DecidedNovember 21, 1945
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 186 Misc. 564 (In re the Will of Shepard) 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 Will of Shepard, 186 Misc. 564, 59 N.Y.S.2d 803, 1945 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2647 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1945).

Opinion

Delehanty, S.

In this- construction proceeding the parties have stipulated the facts deemed by them to be pertinent. No party has interposed any objection to the materiality of any stipulated fact nor has any party sought leave to present further evidence. The controversy is deemed submitted for decision upon the facts stipulated and upon the record of the proceeding.

Deceased was the residuary legatee under the will of his wife. Through her he received certain real properties in respect of the burden of the carrying charges on which the court must give direction. There are five parcels of realty in the estate. Four of these were nonproductive. The fifth either carried itself or so nearly did so that the parties do not seek a ruling respecting the burden of any possible deficit. One of the four unproductive properties was used by deceased as a dwelling. Another building was used as a stable and garage and as living quarters for household employees. A farm property was used as a summer residence. Adjoining the city residence was a vacant lot which produced no income. Except during a period when a merchandising concern hired the residence as part of a program for selling its contents the residence was wholly nonproductive. The garage and servants ’ quarters never produced any income. The value of the farm production was trifling as compared with its operating expenses.

All four of the nonproductive properties were sold before the end of 1944. The total deficits in their operation aggregated $66,951.13. The income beneficiaries ask that this sum be charged to the principal account and in addition they ask that the net sales proceeds be apportioned between principal and [567]*567income. The special- guardian points out that the total income of all trust assets was very large. It appears to be conceded by theJife beneficiaries that as of the date of the last sale of unproductive realty the income from all other sources than rents aggregated about $127,000. On the basis of these figures, the special guardian for the infant remainderman asserts that income should bear all the carrying charges of the realty. He contends further that all of the sales proceeds should be placed in capital account and not apportioned.

Under the will of deceased the residuary is divided into shares which are placed in trust respectively for the adopted children of deceased. Each child during his life is to have the income on his respective share with the proviso that if the child live to January 22,1952, he should then have one half the principal. The remaining half is continued in trust and on the death of the income beneficiary is payable to his lawful issue per stirpes or in default of such issue to the other children of deceased or their issue. The will evinces an intention to care primarily for the income beneficiaries. They were deceased’s children and the particular objects of his concern. He knew of course that his city residence, his garage and his farm involved, individually and collectively, heavy carrying charges with no offsetting income. It must be assumed in such circumstances that he did not intend to deprive his children of the income from his productive assets for the possible future benefit of their issue. The court holds that the carrying charges on the unproductive realty are to be treated as capital charges. In the case of any primary beneficiary who lives to the date fixed in the will he will bear one half of these charges by reason of the diminution in the value of the one-half share then payable.

This ruling requires in principle that the court shall also apportion the net proceeds of the sale of these unproductive parcels. The definite judicial trend toward apportionment of the proceeds of the sale of unproductive property is evidenced clearly by the decision in Matter of Rowland (273 N. Y. 100). There the Court of Appeals ascribed to a testator an intent to convert real property if it became unproductive after his death. The property under consideration in that case was highly productive at the date of the will and at the testator’s death. Notwithstanding that fact there was read into the testator’s will under consideration a direction for conversion for the protection of the income beneficiary who in that case was the testator’s wife. Less strikingly, but nonetheless effectively, a similar result has been reached in many instances (Matter of Satterwhite, 262 N. Y. [568]*568339, 343; Matter of Jackson, 258 N. Y. 281; Furniss v. Cruikshank) 230 N. Y. 495; Spencer v. Spencer, 219 N. Y. 459; Lawrence v. Littlefield, 215 N. Y. 561). On these authorities the court directs apportionment of the net proceeds after taking into account the operating losses. The formula set forth in section 241 of the Restatement of the Law of Trusts is to be followed.

Petitioner also asks that the court determine the respective rights of the income and remainder interests in the trust created by the will so far as they are affected by a certain judgment in the Supreme Court entered in 1927 in an action to which the wife of deceased was a party. In that action a judgment was entered which imposed upon deceased’s wife liabilities which are in part absolutely fixed and in part contingent. Ascertainment of the maximum extent of the liability of deceased’s wife under the judgment is not possible until the death of a person who is still living, who is now seventy-four and is presently without issue. While this individual lives, the fixed obligation of deceased’s wife under the judgment is to contribute $30,000 annually toward a total annual payment of $90,000. Deceased’s wife is liable for the full $90,000 payment so far as the beneficiaries thereof are concerned but so far as her co-obligors are concerned is required to pay the remaining $60,000 or any unpaid part thereof only if her co-obligors default. Separately under the same judgment a total of $500,000 might become payable by deceased’s wife if the now seventy-four year-old individual should die leaving issue entitled to take under the will of his father. To secure this contingent liability a deposit was made by deceased’s wife in her lifetime under terms which might require the impounding of income on the securities which constitute the capital of the deposit. The fixed $30,000 annual liability (and any addition thereto) is not a charge on the deposit but constitutes a charge upon the general assets of deceased’s wife. Up to this point the liability has been discharged by semiannual payments of $15,000. It is not yet possible to know whether or not the $500,000 deposit will be required to satisfy the provisions of the judgment. So long as deceased lived it was immaterial how the annual $30,000 payment was made out of his wife’s assets. In his character as her residuary legatee he was entitled both to principal and income. Since the liability of his deceased wife’s estate had not been cleared when deceased died the tenor of his will brings to the fore a problem which theretofore was nonexistent.

[569]*569The estate of deceased’s wife being under administration and ample assets being in the hands of the fiduciaries of that estate, to discharge any probable liability of that estate under the judgment, it would be possible to defer decision on the problem to a later period. But the question is not wholly academic at this time. The executors of this estate have received substantial payments on account of the residuary interest of deceased in his wife’s estate and the assets thus received are possibly subject to recapture if needed to satisfy the judgment against deceased’s wife.

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Bluebook (online)
186 Misc. 564, 59 N.Y.S.2d 803, 1945 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2647, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-will-of-shepard-nysurct-1945.