Kelsey Estate

11 Pa. D. & C.2d 757, 1957 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 218
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedOctober 16, 1957
Docketno. 3256 of 1933
StatusPublished

This text of 11 Pa. D. & C.2d 757 (Kelsey Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kelsey Estate, 11 Pa. D. & C.2d 757, 1957 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 218 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1957).

Opinion

Shoyer, J.,

This trust arises under deed of July 16,1914, a copy of which is attached hereto, of A. Warren Kelsey, settlor, whereby he created a trust to pay the income to himself, for life, and upon his death, after the termination of the life interest he gave to his wife and an annuity to his sister, to pay the income in equal shares to his children, excluding his daughter, Bonnibel Kelsey, for whom provision was made under a separate trust. The deed provided that in the event of the death of any married child of settlor the income should be paid to the issue of the deceased married child, as more fully set forth in the deed. . . .

The trust continues. This is a partial account of an investment in 20 shares Philadelphia Electric Company common stock, to determine whether the trustee has power to invest in stocks.

The notice of the audit contained the following question:

“The question will be presented to the Court as to whether or not the trustee may invest in shares of common stock under Statutory Authority. The trustee takes the position that the investment of a fair percentage of the trust in legal common stocks is the best way to protect the interests not only of the life tenants, but also of the remaindermen.”

The investment powers are set forth in paragraph eighth of the deed of trust, which reads in part:

[759]*759“Upon any such sales being made the Trustee is hereby authorized and empowered to invest and reinvest the proceeds in bonds, mortgages and such other securities as to it shall seem proper, and to subscribe to any bonds or securities whether the same are or are not such investments as are by law defined or construed to be proper investments for trust funds, but in no event to be limited to the class of investments known as ‘legal investments’; and upon any reorganization of any corporation whose bonds or securities are by this Instrument, or any Future Instrument, transferred to said Trustee, the said Trustee is hereby authorized in its absolute discretion, to join in any reorganization scheme and in furtherance of the same to accept stock of any existing corporations, or those hereafter to be created, but except to this extent, the power of investment of said Trustee shall not in any event include the right to invest in stocks, . . .

The ad litem states that of the investments in the main estate somewhat more than 25 percent is in mortgages, or $160,000, $19,000 invested in three bonds of private corporations, $8,800 in cash and the balance in government bonds.

It is the opinion of the auditing judge that the trust instrument, unequivocally, expressly restricts the trustee from investing in stock of any kind, whether or not the stock has all the other attributes that would otherwise qualify it as a “legal investment”. This conclusion is forced not only from the plain languáge of the clause which provides: “. . . the power of investment of said Trustee shall not in any event include the right 'to invest in stocks . . .”, but also results from a study of the four corners of the trust instrument. (Italics supplied.)

Settlor stated in. the third paragraph of the preamble of the deed that he thought it “unnecessary and [760]*760undesirable” to give his children any portion of the principal of his trust because on the death of his wife the children would come into distributive shares from their maternal grandfather’s estate. His children would then be amply provided. The schedule of the assets which is attached to the deed of trust does not contain one share of stock. He reserved the entire income to himself during his lifetime and, though he also reserved the power to revoke, he made no change, notwithstanding the inflationary period of his time.

In paragraph eighth of the deed he authorized the trustee to invest in bonds, mortgages and such other securities as to it shall seem proper without restricting the trustee to legal investments and in so far as the reorganization of any corporation whose bonds or securities are held in the trust, the trustee is authorized to join in any reorganization and in furtherance of same to accept stock, “but except to this extent, the power of investment of said Trustee shall not in any event include the right to invest in stocks . . .”, and he then prohibited the investment in certain bonds and directed that 25 percent of the principal be kept invested in mortgages.

He, thus, clearly and unequivocally, restricted the trustee from investing in stocks. The fiduciary could, however, accept stock to protect an existing asset of the trust. To express first the solitary exception, then to follow it with the restriction “shall not in any event”, is to provide a forceful rhetorical arrangement allowing for not the shadow of a doubt or ambiguity. The earlier “in no event” (relied on by accountant to modify and weaken the effect of the later clause), by. contrast affords no such conclusive or decisive limitation.

The phrase “in no event” in the restriction clause is all-inclusive. It is in the singular, applicable to each event and is an “express restriction” embracing [761]*761not by implication, but by its simple meaning, any and all events including the event which by legislative act authorized fiduciaries to invest in certain instances in stocks. This same restriction is just as applicable to stocks which are issued by a new corporation, as by a company that is 10 or more years old.

This settlor was just like many today who, with resources invested in the light of present economic conditions, are determined not to have a single share of stock and reject such investments in their estates.

That settlor’s restriction was until 1955 meaningful to the trustee is evident by the fact that in the first 40 years of the trust there was no stock in the fund. Furthermore, though in 1938 our Superior Court in Wood’s Estate, 130 Pa. Superior Ct. 397, held that an exoneration from “legal investments” permitted the trustee to invest in stocks (there being no restriction in the instrument), that decision and the decision of like tenor by our Supreme Court in McGraw’s Estate, 337 Pa. 93 (1940), did not move the instant trustee to invest in stock during the ravages of the recent extended inflation. The conclusion is inevitable that settlor’s “express restriction” against investment in stocks meant to the trustee what settlor intended it should, and as a consequence it adhered to settlor’s mandate until October, 1955.

Scott on Trusts, §227.14, states the rule:

“. . . The provisions of the trust instrument are binding upon the trustee, unless compliance is impossible or illegal, or unless there has been such a change in circumstances that compliance would defeat or substantially impair the accomplishment of the purposes of the "trust.
“By the terms of the trust the trustee may be restricted to classes of investments narrower than those in which he would otherwise be permitted to invest. [762]*762In such a case the trustee commits a breach of trust if he invests in securities not permitted by the terms of the trust although they would otherwise be proper trust investments, and he can be surcharged for any loss that ensues.”

If a fiduciary invests in unauthorized securities, it must be at his own risk: Commonwealth v. McConnell, 226 Pa. 244; Taylor’s Estate, 277 Pa. 518.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Gillingham Estate
46 A.2d 269 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1946)
McGraw's Estate
10 A.2d 377 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1939)
Iscovitz's Estate
179 A. 548 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1935)
Wood's Estate
197 A. 638 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1937)
Commonwealth v. McConnell
75 A. 367 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1910)
Taylor's Estate
121 A. 310 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
11 Pa. D. & C.2d 757, 1957 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 218, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelsey-estate-pactcomplphilad-1957.