Lynn Safe Deposit & Trust Co. v. Martin

32 N.E.2d 247, 308 Mass. 443, 1941 Mass. LEXIS 685
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedFebruary 27, 1941
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 32 N.E.2d 247 (Lynn Safe Deposit & Trust Co. v. Martin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lynn Safe Deposit & Trust Co. v. Martin, 32 N.E.2d 247, 308 Mass. 443, 1941 Mass. LEXIS 685 (Mass. 1941).

Opinion

Donahue, J.

This is a petition for instructions brought in the Probate Court by the Lynn Safe Deposit and Trust Company as trustee under the will of John Macnair, who died at Lynn on November 24, 1913. The petitioner was also pamed as executor in the will, which was proved and allowed on January 15, 1914. On April 17, 1916, the petitioner was duly appointed trustee under the will. This petition for instructions was filed on September 27, 1938.

The testator by his will bequeathed to his wife $5,000 in cash, his household effects and certain other articles of personal property, and devised to his sister a parcel of real estate and bequeathed to her certain articles of personal property. All the rest of his estate he devised and bequeathed to the Lynn Safe Deposit and Trust Company, the present petitioner, in trust: to “hold and manage the same, and out of the net income thereof” to pay to his wife $5,000 per year during her life in quarterly instalments; to “set apart” and expend for the care and maintenance of a “disabled brother” $1,000 per year during his life; to pay to his sister $1,200 per year during her life, and to five nephews and nieces lesser amounts during their lives. A provision that his estate should ultimately be devoted to charitable purposes and other provisions in the will are hereinafter set out.

At the time this petition for instructions was filed the only life beneficiaries named in the will then living were the testator’s widow and C. Allison Macnair, a niece of the testator who, under the terms of the will, was to receive $300 annually during her life. The widow, the niece and the Attorney General were named in the petition as respondents. Answers were filed by the widow and by the Attorney General.

The petition was heard in the Probate Court on the following statements of fact made and agreed to by counsel. [445]*445The testator for many years had been an officer in and the principal manager of a national bank and, later, of the trust company which he named as executor and trustee under his will. He never had any children. His widow, who was his second wife, was forty-two years old at the time the will was made. At that time the ages of the other life beneficiaries under the will were fifty-six, fifty-three, fifty, forty-six, forty-one, thirty-six and twenty-three years. The trustee’s inventory showed real estate inventoried at $86,000 and personal property inventoried at $85,532.73. "The principal of the estate” at the time of the hearing "as stated in the petition amounts to $95,577.79.” It seems, although the record is not entirely clear, that this figure was reached by taking $65,000, the inventory value of such real estate as had not been sold, and $30,000, the inventory value of bank stock held by the trustee. The income from the trust property has never in any year been sufficient to pay the full amount of the annual payments to the life beneficiaries as provided in the will. The trustee has, however, each year paid to the living beneficiaries the amounts provided for them in the will. It did this by resorting to the principal of the trust estate, and taking therefrom enough to make up the deficiency in the income.

The petitioner sought instruction: "Whether the trustee shall continue to apply principal of the trust to make up any deficiency of income thereof necessary to pay said widow of the testator $5,000 per year for life and said C. Allison Macnair $300 per year for life,” and "such further instructions as may be just, necessary and expedient in the premises.”

The probate judge made no findings of fact. He entered a decree ordering "that the trustee shall pay to the surviving beneficiaries such sums as may be payable to them yearly under the terms of the will, out of yearly net income, and shall not apply principal of the trust to make up any deficiency of income of said trust.” From this decree the widow of the testator has appealed.

1. A reading of the will in its entirety manifests two main purposes of the testator. One was to make provision during [446]*446their lives for his widow and for those of his kin named in the will. The other purpose was that the trust property-should ultimately be devoted to charitable ends. A reply to the trustee's request for instructions requires the determination of the intent of the testator as expressed in the language of the will, read in the light of all material circumstances existent at the time of its execution.

The provision which the testator saw fit to make for his widow and for the relatives he named in the will was, the yearly payment to each of a stated sum of money during their, respective lives. The will directed that such payments should be made “out of the net income” of the estate. In a later paragraph, the testator directed the trustee to withhold “from the income” of the estate and to keep in reserve a sum which, in the trustee’s judgment, might be sufficient to meet all charges against the real estate and other necessary expenditures, “as well as for the emergency fund hereinafter named” and to “devote the remainder of the income” of the estate to designated charities.

The next paragraph in the will slates: “It is the purpose of this will that my entire estate should ultimately be devoted to charitable- purposes, and constitute what shall be known as the ‘John Macnair Fund’, and to that end, I direct that upon the death of any beneficiary herein, under any trust in this will, the share of the income set apart for his or her benefit shall be applied immediately to the following charities, to wit: The Incorporated Charities of the City of Lynn, without distinction, giving my Trustee full and unqualified power to discriminate among said Charities, and to proportion the amount given to each according to his discretion.”

A later paragraph of the testator’s will directed that upon the death of any life beneficiary his interest should cease and that “the income payable to him during life be transferred to the general residuary fund for charities as indicated in said will.” The will also provided that the interest of the beneficiaries under the trust should not be alienable by anticipation or in any way subject to their debts, and that all legacy taxes under the will should be borne by the estate.

[447]*447The language of the will manifests a strong intent that the principal of the trust fund should be used solely for carrying out the charitable intentions of the testator. He dedicated the principal of the “entire estate” broadly to charitable purposes. He left to his trustee the choice of the particular charitable undertakings that should benefit from his bomfiy, but gave personality to the principal of the estate — and his name — by requiring that it bear the name “John Macnair Fund.” The language of the will which describes the character of the principal of the trust estate indicates no intention that any portion thereof should be used to pay in whole or in part the yearly sums provided in the will for the life beneficiaries. Nor is this indicated by the language of the will descriptive of the source of such payments. The will provides in so many words that those payments shall be made “out of the net income” of the estate. The sentence that states the “purpose of this will” provides that, upon the death of a life beneficiary, “the income set apart for his . . . benefit” shall be applied to the designated charities.

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Bluebook (online)
32 N.E.2d 247, 308 Mass. 443, 1941 Mass. LEXIS 685, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lynn-safe-deposit-trust-co-v-martin-mass-1941.