Kimball v. Blanchard

64 A. 645, 101 Me. 383, 1906 Me. LEXIS 41
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedApril 14, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 64 A. 645 (Kimball v. Blanchard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kimball v. Blanchard, 64 A. 645, 101 Me. 383, 1906 Me. LEXIS 41 (Me. 1906).

Opinion

Wiswell, C. J.

This bill in equity, brought by one of the beneficiaries of a trust against the trustee, in which the complainant seeks a decree of this court directing the trustee to pay her out of the trust fund a certain sum of money, which she had demanded of the trustee, and thereafter to pay her such further and other sums, “as from time to time your petitioner in her judgment needs for her comfortable support and maintenance,” requires a construction of the will by which the trust was created.

The testatrix, the mother of the complainant, died October 13, 1903. By her will, made July 9, 1900, and duly admitted to probate after her death, she made the following disposition of her property : “ Second. I do hereby give, bequeath and devise unto John H. Blanchard, in trust, all of my estate, real, personal and mixed, wherever found and however situated. Said trust is for the benefit of my daughter, Elivra L. Kimball, wife of Daniel Kimball. I do hereby request my said trustee to convert into cash all my estate, and to invest the same where it will be secure and keep same invested. . . . . 1 do hereby direct my trustee to pay to my daughter, said Elvira L. Kimball, such sums from time to time as she may need for her comfortable support and maintenance so long as she lives. I desire my trustee to take into consideration (in) making said payment that it is the duty and obligation of her husband to support and maintain her, but if for any cause her husband does not provide suitable support and maintenance for her, then I request my said trustee shall see that the same is provided out of the funds in his hands as trustee. It is my desire that all of said property if necessary shall be used for the benefit of my daughter as herein set out.”

So much as is important here of the next clause of the will is as follows: “Third. After the death of my daughter, said Elvira L. Kimball, whatever may remain on the settlement of the account by my said trustee, I give, bequeath and devise to the children of the said Elvira L. Kimball in equal shares.” This clause also contains [386]*386provisions in regard to the disposition of the property in case any of her daughter’s children “shall have deceased prior to the termination of said trust.”

At the time that this will was made the complainant was about forty-four years of age; she had three children, two of whom were of sufficient age to support themselves, and the third, a boy, was about four years óf age, at that time. The daughter was then living with her husband, but in September, 1901, a little more than a year after the date of the will, and something more than two years before the death of the testatrix, she was divorced from her husband. The whole estate left by the testatrix, according to the inventory, amounted to $1448.85, consisting of goods'and chattels $86.25 and rights and crédits, $1362.60. The trustee accepted the trust created by this will and entered upon the administration thereof. Immediately after the death of the testatrix he advanced to the complainant a small sum of money for her immediate requirements, later turned over to her the goods and chattels left by the testatrix, advanced other small sums to her, and in April, 1904 commenced paying her the sum of $12 per month, which advancements were continued until after the commencement of this litigation. At the time of the hearing he had of the trust fund, in his possession, the sum of $992.07.

Upon a hearing before a single justice a decree was made sustaining the bill, ordering the payment to her by the defendant of the sum of $300 out of the estate in his hands, an amount which the complainant had previously demanded of the trustee, and further ordered that the trustee thereafter, “pay her such further sums, from time to time, from said estate, as the plaintiS in her judgment may need for her comfortable support and maintenance.” From this decree an appeal was taken by the defendant. The decree was evidently based upon the theory that, under the proper construction of the provisions above quoted in the will, the discretion of determining as to the amounts that might be necessary for the comfortable support and maintenance of the daughter was vested in her; that the duties of the trustee were merely passive, and that he was only required to [387]*387pay over to tlie complainant such portions of the estate as she, at any time, might demand.

We do not think that this is in accordance with the evident intention of the testatrix in creating this trust. In our opinion many expressions of the testatrix, contained in the will, and the provisions of the will, show an entirely contrary intention. The trustee was directed, “ to convert into cash all my estate, and to invest the same where it would be secure, and keep same invested.” In making payments to the daughter for her comfortable support and maintenance during her lifetime, the trustee was directed to take into consideration the duty and obligation of the complainant’s husband to support and maintain her, but if for any reason the husband failed to do this, then I request my said trustee shall see the same is provided out of the funds in his hands as trustee.” More than this a devise over was made to the children of this daughter of whatever might remain of the estate at the death of the daughter.

It seems to us evident that, for reasons satisfactory to the testatrix, she did not desire to give her property outright to her daughter, even for life, or to create a naked trust in her favor which could be terminated at the will of the daughter whenever she might prefer to have the whole of the fund in her possession and control. That she did desire, and carried this desire into effect, to create a trust fund which would be helpful in affording some assistance to the daughter during the remainder of her life, and that if it became necessary, for her reasonably comfortable support and maintenance, the whole of the fund might be used for that purpose, but that the determination of this question as to how much was necessary, and as to when and how lai'ge payments should be made, was left to the discretion of the trustee, who, of course, would be required to take into consideration the condition of the complainant from time to time, as well as the small amount of the fund in his possession, to the end that this small sum would not be immediately exhausted and dissipated, but should be made to last as long as reasonably possible to carry out the purposes of the testatrix in creating the trust.

. If this were not the intention of the testatrix we can conceive of no reason why she should have used the expressions above referred to. [388]*388By this will she made it the duty of the trustee, not the complainant, to take into consideration, in making payments to the daughter, the duty and obligation of a husband to support his wife. And she also made it the duty of the trustee, not the complainant, in case the husband failed in this duty, to see that the daughter’s support was provided for out of the trust fund. These expressions are entirely inconsistent with an intention upon the part of the testatrix- that the beneficiary should have the right to exercise her judgment and discretion as to the amounts she should demand and receive out of the trust fund, to such an extent even, that she might at any time require the payment to her of whatever might remain of the fund, to be, perhaps, immediately used and exhausted.

Much reliance is placed by the counsel for the complainant upon the case of Cole v. Littlefield, 35 Maine, 439.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 A. 645, 101 Me. 383, 1906 Me. LEXIS 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kimball-v-blanchard-me-1906.