Meyer v. Reif

258 N.W. 391, 217 Wis. 11, 1935 Wisc. LEXIS 44
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 8, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 258 N.W. 391 (Meyer v. Reif) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meyer v. Reif, 258 N.W. 391, 217 Wis. 11, 1935 Wisc. LEXIS 44 (Wis. 1935).

Opinion

Fowler, J.

The complaint alleges the recovery of a judgment in favor of the plaintiff for $4,750 against the defendant Miles Reif and a return of execution unsatisfied. It further alleges that a trust was created by the will of his grandmother for the benefit of the defendant Miles Reif, pursuant to which the county court by final decree assigned to Norma Reif and another, as trustees, a fund of $9,216.79, the income of which was to be devoted to the education and support of the defendant Miles until he should arrive at the age of twenty-five years, if he lived so long, and then the fund'with any accumulations of income not expended for his support and education was to be turned over to him; and if he did not reach the age of twenty-five years, the fund was to go to his mother, Norma, if she were living at his death; and if Norma were not then living, it was to go to the heirs of the testatrix, whoever they might be at that time. The complaint prays for several specific kinds of relief, or such other relief as may be equitable to prevent the fund from being so disposed of by the defendants that it cannot be devoted to plaintiff’s judgment in case the defendant Miles shall reach the age of twenty-five years.

The defendant Norma Reif is the sole surviving trustee of the fund. She and Miles answered the complaint admitting all the allegations of fact stated therein. Among the allegations of the complaint was one to the effect that Miles is the equitable owner of the fund and will become the absolute owner thereof upon arriving at the age of twenty-five years. The answer of Miles denies that he is the equitable owner of the fund, or interest therein, except as beneficiary of the income thereof for his support and education, and [13]*13alleges that he has no property out of which the plaintiff’s judgment may be satisfied. The defendant trustee interposed a like answer. To these answers the plaintiff demurred, and the demurrers were overruled.

A demurrer to an answer for insufficiency of facts to constitute a defense “searches the record,” and brings up the question whether the complaint states a cause of action. The allegation of the complaint next above stated is a mere conclusion of law from the facts stated. The allegations of the answer stated are mere denials of this conclusion of law. As no facts are denied in the answer, the effect of the order overruling the demurrer to it is that of an ordér sustaining a demurrer to the complaint for insufficiency of fact, and amounts to a holding that the complaint does not state a cause of action. So the real question at issue is whether the plaintiff is entitled to any relief upon the facts stated in his complaint, which was the issue in Arzbacher v. Mayer, 53 Wis. 380, 10 N. W. 440.

The plaintiff’s right to recover is grounded on the general principles of equity applicable to creditors’ bills and the Arzbacher Case, which construes sec. 3029, R. S. 1878, now sec. 273.02, Stats. This statute provides that whenever an execution is returned unsatisfied against a judgment debtor action lies to compel discovery of property belonging to the debtor or held in trust for him, and to prevent the transfer of any such property “except where. such trust has been created by or the fund so held in trust has proceeded from some person other than the defendant [debtor] himself.” The respondents claim that by reason of the exception above quoted, the plaintiff is not entitled to seize the fund or prevent its transfer. They contend that the defendant Miles has no vested interest in the fund and that it is therefore not subject to transfer or assignment.

In the Arzbacher Case corporate stock was by will bequeathed to trustees to pay the income to the widow of the testator during her life, and to turn the stock over to a son [14]*14upon her death. While the widow was still living, a creditor of the son brought a creditor’s bill to set aside a transfer of the son’s interest in the stock as in fraud of creditors, and to prevent its future transfer and to subject the stock to the satisfaction of his judgment upon the death of the widow. A demurrer to the complaint for insufficiency of facts was overruled by the trial court and affirmed on appeal. The basis of the holding of this court, as stated at page 391, of the opinion, was that the exception of the statute above cited “has no application to property which is held by a trustee for the benefit of a judgment debtor when, notwithstanding such trust, the judgment debtor has the absolute power of transferring, conveying, or assigning his interest in the property so held in trust.” The opinion states that the statute was taken from the state of New York and that prior to its enactment here it had been construed as stated in the quotation above in Hallett v. Thompson, 5 Paige (N. Y.), 583, and many subsequent cases, and that in taking over the statute we took with it the construction given to it by the courts of New York prior to the time of its adoption by our legislature. Williams v. Thorn, 70 N. Y. 270, cited in the Arzbacher Case, states and discusses many of the New York decisions. From this opinion it appears that the sole purpose of the exception in the statute was to prevent an income secured by a trust for the support of a debtor from being taken to satisfy a judgment against him. Without this exception, this might have been done under a literal application of the statute. The effect of the exception in the statute was limited to accomplishment of its purpose. In the New York cases decided prior to our adoption of the statute it was many times held that where the income of a trust estate was given for the support of a debtor, any excess of income not reasonably necéssary for such support could be applied under the statute towards satisfaction of a judgment against him. Thus any income of the fund .in the instant case not reason[15]*15ably necessary for the support and education of Miles could be applied to plaintiff’s judgment in such a suit as was brought, but for the fact that the will provided that any such excess should be added to the principal of the fund and pass with it at termination of the trust. No reason is perceived why, in equity, application of the principal of the fund may not as well be compelled when it becomes payable to the debtor, if it does so become, as that any excess of income over necessities for support and education might be compelled but for the provision for adding any such excess to the principal of the fund.

The holding of the Arzbacher Case is to the effect that trust property held for the benefit of a debtor may-be applied to satisfaction of a judgment against him whenever his interest in the property is assignable. From this it follows that if the defendant Miles has an assignable interest in the fund in suit the plaintiff is entitled to such relief as will prevent its assignment, just as the plaintiff in the Arzbacher Case was entitled to such relief. The situation, if the defendant may by assignment transfer to another right to the fund when he becomes twenty-five years of age, if he reaches that age, is precisely the same as in the Arsbacher Case, and the plaintiff is entitled to whatever preventive relief the plaintiff in that case was entitled.

That the defendant has an assignable interest in the fund held for his benefit would seem to follow from sec. 231.19, Stats., which declares that “the rights and interests of every person for whose benefit a trust for the payment of a sum in gross is created are assignable.” Here a sum in gross is held in trust for Miles.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
258 N.W. 391, 217 Wis. 11, 1935 Wisc. LEXIS 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meyer-v-reif-wis-1935.