Ladd & Bush Trust Co. v. Kurtz

127 P.2d 732, 169 Or. 225, 1942 Ore. LEXIS 74
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 17, 1942
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 127 P.2d 732 (Ladd & Bush Trust Co. v. Kurtz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ladd & Bush Trust Co. v. Kurtz, 127 P.2d 732, 169 Or. 225, 1942 Ore. LEXIS 74 (Or. 1942).

Opinion

RAND, J.

The plaintiff, Ladd & Bush Trust Company, as executor under the will of Gh Friedrich Kurz, instituted this proceeding praying for a declaratory decree construing the will and determining what proportional part, if any, the various legatees and devisees named in the will shall be required to refund for the satisfaction of claims against the estate.

The case was tried in the circuit court for Marion county upon an agreed stipulation of facts and certain exhibits attached thereto from which it appears that G. Friedrich Kurz, or Kurtz as his descendants spell the name, died on December 6, 1936, leaving a last will and testament, in which he nominated the Ladd & Bush Trust Company as executor under the will and directed that all his just debts be paid, and that he left an estate consisting of real and personal property.

*227 It also appears that, at the time of his death, the testator owed numerous debts and that the personal estate has been exhausted and is insufficient to pay his debts. Among the debts so left and still unpaid are two notes signed by the testator, one for $1,500 and one for $1,000, which are secured by a mortgage on all of lot 8, block 18, University Addition to the city of Salem, except 70 feet off the west end thereof which, prior to his death, the testator had sold and conveyed to Howard Kurtz, his grandson, by a deed which warranted that the premises so conveyed were free from all incumbrances.

The testator also in his lifetime had sold and conveyed to his said grandson, Howard Kurtz, 30.08 feet off the east end of said lot 8 and, by his deed, he had warranted that those premises were free from all incumbrances.

This left a frontage on Ferry street of some 55 or 60 feet in the center of said lot 8, block 18, belonging to the testator at the time of his death, on which there was an apartment house and which, together with the 30.08 feet off the east end of said lot, was subject to said mortgage.

The principal question upon this appeal grows out of the foregoing facts and two paragraphs in the will, numbered Ninth and Eleventh, which read as follows:

“1 declare that I am indebted to the Ladd & Bush Bank, of Salem, Oregon, upon a mortgage in the sum of $2500.00, and direct that my executor, hereinafter named, shall sell and dispose of the following described premises to-wit: Beginning at an iron rod, which is the Northeast corner of Lot 8, Block 18, University Addition to the City of Salem, Marion County, Oregon, and running thence Westerly along the North line of said Lot 30.08 feet to *228 a marker set on the sidewalk along the North line of said Lot 8; thence Southerly and parallel with the East line of said Lot 8, to a marker set in concrete on the Southerly line of said Lot 8; thence Easterly along said South line of Lot 8, 30.08 feet, to the Southeast corner of said Lot; thence Northerly along the East line of said Lot, to the place of beginning, and being the Easterly 30.08 feet of said Lot 8, Block 18, University Addition to the City of Salem, Marion County, Oregon. Subject, however, to a right of way or easement twelve feet in width along the Southerly end of said above described property in favor of the owner of the remaining portion of said Lot 8.
“Out of the proceeds derived from the sale of said premises, my executor shall pay off and discharge said mortgage, and the surplus, if any there should be, shall be converted into my estate, to meet claims and charges against my estate, expenses of probate, etc.
“I have theretofore, in this instrument, directed the executor hereinafter named to sell a certain portion of Lot No. 8 in Block No. 18 of University Addition to the City of Salem, Marion County, Oregon, and I have heretofore deeded to my grandson Howard Kurtz another portion of said Lot. The remaining portion of said Lot, comprising a frontage of approximately 66 feet on Perry Street, in the City of Salem, Marion County, Oregon, I give, devise and bequeath to Ladd & Bush Trust Company, in trust, nevertheless, for the use and benefit of my great grandson Delbert Kurtz, and I direct that said trustee shall have and exercise full and complete control over, shall have possession of said premises, and the whole thereof, shall operate and manage the same, and after the payment of all taxes and assessments levied or assessed thereon, all expenses incurred in the operation and management of the same, necessary upkeep and repair of buildings and improvements thereon, including insurance, payment of the expense of the *229 trustee, including a reasonable attorney’s fees, it shall pay over to my said great grandson, Delbert Kurtz, the net income derived from said premises, such payment to be made at such times and intervals as the trustee shall deem advisable, until the said Delbert Kurtz shall arrive at the age of 30 years, it being my expectation that the maternal grandmother of the said Delbert Kurtz, Harriet C. Barker, shall be provided for out of said income as long as she may live, said trustee to use its own judgment as to the amount of such provision as is made for the said Harriet C. Barker, and when the said Delbert Kurtz shall arrive at the age of 30 years, the said provision made for him herein shall become his absolute property. Said trustee shall have authority to mortgage or otherwise encumber said premises for the purpose of repairing, remodeling or reconstructing any buildings thereon, or otherwise improving said premises, all at the risk of the trust estate, and if, in the opinion of said trustee, it is deemed advisable to sell and dispose of said premises and convert the proceeds derived therefrom into other income bearing property or securities, it is hereby authorized to do so, at the risk of the trust estate, and without any liability on the part of the trustee, and if the said Delbert Kurtz should die prior to attaining the age of 30 years, the provision in this paragraph made for him shall pass to and become the property of my granddaughter, Dorothy Peyton.”

At the close of the trial, the trial court entered a decree holding that the devisee of that portion of lot 8, devised in trust for the use and benefit of Delbert Kurtz, took the same cum onere, that is, subject to the mortgage, and was not entitled to contribution on account of said mortgage debt from either or any of the other legatees and devisees named in the will. From this decree Delbert Kurtz, by his guardian, Mary *230 Painter, and Harriet C. Barker have alone appealed. Harriet C. Barker, who was living at the time the decree was entered in the court below, has since died and her life interest in the property has terminated.

It seems obvious from the foregoing that the testator, whose memory was manifestly defective at the time he executed his will, intended that this mortgage debt to the Ladd & Bush Trust Company should be satisfied out of property belonging to his estate and that the devisee should not take the property burdened with the mortgage.

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Related

In Re Estate of Nawrocki
268 P.2d 363 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1954)

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Bluebook (online)
127 P.2d 732, 169 Or. 225, 1942 Ore. LEXIS 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ladd-bush-trust-co-v-kurtz-or-1942.