Lanning v. Sisters of St. Francis

35 N.J. Eq. 392
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedMay 15, 1882
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 35 N.J. Eq. 392 (Lanning v. Sisters of St. Francis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lanning v. Sisters of St. Francis, 35 N.J. Eq. 392 (N.J. Ct. App. 1882).

Opinion

The Chancellor.

This is a suit for the construction of the will of Mrs. Margaretta Mayer, deceased, late of the city of Trenton. The will was made April 28th, .1880. By the first clause the testatrix directs payment of her debts and funeral expenses. By the second and third she gives directions for her funeral and for masses. By the fourth she gives a small legacy for books for certain poor children. The fifth is as follows :

I will $500 to the St. Francis Hospital, in Chambersburgh, Mercer county, state of New Jersey. The $500 shall remain as a fund as long as the hospital lasts. I will [that] the interest only shall be divided among the sick every year; and furthermore, I direct that every year, [on] the day of my death, [there] shall be one high mass prayed in the church or chapel of St. Francis Hospital for me and [my] family.”

[395]*395By the sixth, she gives $500 to Augusta Mayer, directing that she have the use of the interest thereof only for life, and that after her death the fund be divided among certain persons named in that connection. By the seventh, a gift of a like sum is made to Elizabeth Schmitt, she to have the interest only of it for life, and at her death the principal to go to her two sons. The eighth is as follows:

“ I will my house to Mary Baldauf and Anthony Baldauf, No. 160 Bose street, Trenton, New Jersey ; and the plate on the front door, M. Mayer, shall remain forever. Both Mary and Anthony Baldauf [shall] have the use as long as they live, and after both [shall have] died the house or property shall he sold and the money shall he divided to -(among) Anthonv’s first wife’s children, three boys and one girl.”

By the ninth she disposes specifically of certain articles of personal use. The tenth is as follows:

[396]*396“I will and appoint John Beiser, in the city of Trenton, Mercer county, state of New Jersey, in fee simple, to have power over all my real estate and personal property after I am deceased, to sell and divide all the money to Joseph C. Link’s children, Mary and Sethe Link, to have the interest every year for their use only; after they become of age each one shall have [an] equal share for (of) what I will to them. The 9th part shall have their share before the 10th part; and [as to] what is left, Joseph C. Link’s children shall have the half part of my real estate after all [shall have] got their share (shares) what (whom) I have named before.”'

By the eleventh she gives to the two sons of her brother, Casper Link, deceased, the half of her real estate and personal property after her death. The twelfth is as follows :

I give, devise and bequeath unto' my administrator and executor, John Beiser, Trenton, Mercer county, state of New Jersey, all my estate, both real and personal and mixed, wheresoever the same is situate and of whatsoever [397]*397the same may consist, to the use of my administrator and executor, John Reiser, city of Trenton, Mercer county,.state of New Jersey, in fee simple.”

By the thirteenth she appoints Eeiser executor.

The will was duly admitted to probate and letters testamentary thereon issued to Eeiser by the surrogate of Mercer county, September 28th, 1880. Eeiser died in May, 1881, and letters of administration eum testamento annexo de bonis non, were issued to the complainant. The questions submitted are whether the $500 mentioned in the fifth section shall be paid over to “ The Sisters of St. Erancis of Trenton, Yew Jersey,” the corporation owning, controlling and managing the hospital mentioned in that section, and, if not, what disposition shall be made of the fund; whether the complainant, as administrator mm testamento annexo de bonis non, has power to execute the trusts created by the sixth, seventh and tenth sections; whether he has [398]*398power to sell the real estate; whether the devise in the eighth section is of all the property on Rose street on which the testatrix lived (the house thereon was numbered 160), or only that part of it on which the house and other buildings stand; whether Joseph Link’s daughter Sarah is the person referred to by the name of Sethe ” in the tenth section, and to whom and in what proportions the residue of the estate goes.

The gift of the $500 to the hospital is a valid charity. Perry on Trusts § 699 ; Atty.-Gen. v. Moore’s Exrs., 4 C. E. Gr. 503. The gift is, in effect, to the corporation of the hospital. The rrysnomer will not defeat the gift Boyle on Char. 130; McBride v. Elmer’s Exrs., 2 Hal. Ch. 107 ; De Camp v. Dobbins, 2 Stew. Eq. 36 ; Goodell v. Union Association, Id. 32. And it is an [399]*399absolute gift by its terms. By the charter of the hospital (P. L. of 1873 p. 928) it is declared that the essential object of the corporation' shall be the erection and maintenance of a hospital for the care of the sick, and the right of perpetual succession is granted. The corporation will take the fund and hold it on the trust declared in the will, that is, in trust to invest it and devote the interest to the purpose specified in the will — the benefit of the sick in the hospital.

The trusts created by the sixth and seventh sections of the will — to invest, pay over interest for life, and at the death of the life-tenant, divide the principal — do not devolve on the administrator. Nor does that created by the tenth section, for the benefit of the children of Joseph C. Link.

[400]*400Nor has the administrator power to sell the real estate. The power to sell is given, by the tenth section, to Reiser personally. The words “ in fee simple,” in that connection, were probably used as synonymous with “absolutely.” By that section (it precedes his appointment as executor) power is given to him individually, over all the real and personal property of the testatrix, to sell it and divide the proceeds; and by the twelfth section, which also precedes the section appointing him executor, the testatrix gives to him, as executor, and to his use as such, all her property. He evidently was clothed with a trust, not with a mere power of sale. While a naked power of sale would, by virtue of the statute (Rev. p. 398 § 11), devolve upon the administrator, a trust, iu the absence of any provision in the will that it shall do so, does not. Brush v. Young, 4 Dutch. 237. [401]*401The tenth section creates a trust to sell, invest half of the net proceeds, and pay over the interest to Joseph C. Link’s children until they shall attain to majority, and then to divide. Moreover, it appears clearly, from the will, otherwise — that the testatrix confided in Reiser, for, as before stated, the power to sell is to him individually, and not as executor, and the gift of the legal title, though to him as. executor, was intended to be in aid of the power previously given. The power given by the tenth section is over all the estate, real and personal, and of course extends to and covers the property mentioned in the-eighth section. The trusts created by the sixth, seventh and tenth sections are not incumbent on the administrator, and the power of sale given by the tenth does not devolve on him.

The devise in the eighth section — of the testator’s house, No. [402]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
35 N.J. Eq. 392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lanning-v-sisters-of-st-francis-njch-1882.