Liberty Storage & Warehouse Co. v. Van Wyck

165 Misc. 890, 1 N.Y.S.2d 149, 1937 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1053
CourtCity of New York Municipal Court
DecidedNovember 29, 1937
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 165 Misc. 890 (Liberty Storage & Warehouse Co. v. Van Wyck) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering City of New York Municipal Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Liberty Storage & Warehouse Co. v. Van Wyck, 165 Misc. 890, 1 N.Y.S.2d 149, 1937 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1053 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1937).

Opinion

Byrnes, J.

There are before the court two motions made by the Liberty Storage and Warehouse Company, a judgment creditor of Prescott Van Wyck, judgment debtor, for directory orders against the Bankers Trust Company of New York and the City Bank Farmers Trust Company pursuant to section 794 of the Civil Practice Act and also for such other, further and different relief * * * as to this court may seem just and proper in the premises.” [893]*893The debtor has entered a general appearance upon the motions, and both trust companies oppose the motions.

Careful consideration of the voluminous affidavits and exhibits establishes that there are no facts in dispute, and only questions of law remain for determination.

The first and paramount question to be considered is the legal effect of two trust indentures executed by the debtor as settlor to the respective trust companies aforesaid as trustees. By these instruments, and modifications thereof, executed before the entry of the judgment herein and seemingly before the obligation upon which it is based was incurred, Mr. Van Wyck transferred to each of the trust companies securities having a value, in the case of each separate trust, of upwards of $80,000 and possibly closer to $100,000. For present purposes it is sufficient to indicate these approximate amounts, and the court does not, therefore, undertake to determine more exactly the value of the corpus of the two trusts. The annual income from each trust amounts to approximately $3,000. Here, again, it is unnecessary to state the exact amounts.

The provisions of the trusts will be briefly summarized without reference to features thereof, which need not be here considered. It was provided that until 1943 the income must be paid to the settlor, and that the settlor might also withdraw a portion of the principal of each trust not exceeding $5,000 in any one calendar year upon the written consent of either the settlor’s sister or either one of two of his uncles.

It may be said at this point that the apparant purpose of the trusts was to guard the settlor against his own improvidence; that the settlor undertook to carve out of his own estate for his own benefit two spendthrift trusts. These trusts provided that the entire unexpended principal should revert to the settlor in 1943 provided that he be then alive. In the event of bis prior death, all but twenty-five per cent of each trust is to be distributed among certain designated remaindermen, all relatives of the settlor. As to twenty-five per cent of each trust, the settlor directed that it be paid by the respective trustees to such persons and in such proportions as the settlor shall by his last will and testament designate and appoint.” It was further provided that in the event of the settlor’s failure to exercise the power of appointment by will, the aforesaid twenty-five per cent should be distributed with the remaining seventy-five per cent to the remaindermen named in each trust indenture. The settlor specifically surrendered the right of revoking the trusts at any time prior to their expiration in 1943, at which time, as above stated, the unexpended portion [894]*894of the corpus of each trust is to revert to the settlor, provided he be then living.

At this time the settlor is alive.

So far as the income from the trusts is concerned, this is expressly-reserved for the sole use of the settlor, and there can be no question that, as to the income, the trusts are void as against creditors of the settlor. As the income, however, is heavily incumbered by various assignments and liens, the court cannot summarily determine the validity of these assignments and liens, and may not, therefore, summarily direct the payment of the income to this judgment creditor.

The court adheres to the opinion that, at least as to the portion of the corpus of each trust amounting to twenty-five per cent thereof, with respect to which the settlor reserved the power of appointment by will, the trusts are wholly void as against creditors. It is unnecessary to decide, for reasons hereinafter indicated, whether the remaining seventy-five per cent is also void, and the court will confine itself to a consideration of the legal right of this judgment creditor to satisfy this judgment out of such twenty-five per cent of the corpus of either trust.

Section 34 of the Personal Property Law provides: A transfer of personal property, made in trust for the use of the person making it, is void as against the existing or subsequent creditors of such person.”

The trustees contend that as there is a possibility that the settlor may not survive until 1943 and may fail to exercise the reserved power of appointment by will, certain designated remaindermen would then take the unexpended corpus of the trusts, and that these remaindermen have rights of which they are not to be deprived by the application of such corpus to the payment of this judgment.

A similar situation was considered by Mr. Justice Shientag in City Bank Farmers Trust Co. v. Miller (163 Misc. 459). The deceased, Marilyn Miller O’Brien, had created an inter vivos trust in its pertinent provisions very much like the trusts under consideration here. In that trust, as in the trusts at bar, the settlor reserved a life interest. The trustee was required to pay to the settlor $500 per week; she reserved no power of revocation and, unlike the trusts at bar, there was no provision that the corpus of the trust should revert to the settlor during her lifetime. Such trust indenture further provided that upon the settlor’s death the trustee shal sell any securities remaining as part of the trust estate and shall distribute the proceeds thereof together with the remaining ' principal and income in the trust estate as the settlor shall by her last will and testament appoint, and in default of such appointment [895]*895to the person or persons to whom, and in the shares and proportions in which, the administrator of the settlor would have been required to pay the same pursuant to the laws of the State of New York then in force had the settlor died intestate and domiciled in the State of New York at the time of her death.”

Upon the settlor’s death the question arose whether a will made by her was intended to apply to the corpus of the trust. Mr. Justice Shientag held that the settlor had by such will effectually exercised her power of appointment under the trust indenture.

The settlor of the trust used words effectual to create remainder interests in the persons who under the law would have been her distributees in the event of intestacy. (Whittemore v. Equitable Trust Co., 250 N. Y. 298; Guaranty Trust Co. v. Harris, 267 id. 1; Schoellkopf v. Marine Trust Co., Id. 358.) ”

Nevertheless, the learned court squarely held that as against creditors the trust was absolutely void. It was said: In the present case the life interest has come to an end and the creditors seek to reach the corpus of the trust. In Young v. Heermans (66 N. Y. 374) a trust deed conveyed real and personal property to the trustee to pay over the income to the settlor for life. The remainder was to be distributed in accordance with a supplementary writing to be thereafter executed, or in default of such writing to the settlor’s heirs. The trust was attacked by a creditor of the settlor and held void in its entirety as against the claims of subsequent as well as existing creditors.

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

Related

United States v. Ritter
558 F.2d 1165 (First Circuit, 1977)
United States v. Ritter
558 F.2d 1165 (Fourth Circuit, 1977)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 Misc. 890, 1 N.Y.S.2d 149, 1937 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1053, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liberty-storage-warehouse-co-v-van-wyck-nynyccityct-1937.