Montignani v. Blade

26 N.Y.S. 670, 81 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 297, 56 N.Y. St. Rep. 269
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 14, 1893
StatusPublished

This text of 26 N.Y.S. 670 (Montignani v. Blade) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Montignani v. Blade, 26 N.Y.S. 670, 81 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 297, 56 N.Y. St. Rep. 269 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1893).

Opinion

MAYHAM, P. J.

This action was tried by the learned judge principally upon agreed facts stipulated by the counsel for.the respective parties, and the main contention on this appeal arises out of the determination of the trial court upon the second, third, fourth, and fifth disposing clauses of the testator’s will. If that determination is correct, then there is little or no difficulty in the administrator’s administering the estate under the will and law as laid down by the learned trial judge. Each of these disposing clauses, except the fifth, suspended the alienation of the property in them devised and bequeathed for a period of years, not depending upon the continuance of two lives in being, and each assumed to create a trust to continue during the period of such suspension. The trial judge held that such suspension was illegal, and the property •so sought to be devised and bequeathed was not, by said clauses in the will, disposed of by it, and that the same lapsed and reverted into, and became a part of, the estate of the deceased. It is insisted by the counsel for the appellant Barnabas E. Staats that [671]*671the bequest to him in the second disposing clause oí the will, of the stock in the ‘Wells, Fargo & Company Express,” is not subject to the objection that it is subject to an illegal trust created in the will, and that the vesting or alienation of the same is not, by that clause, suspended for more than two lives in being. That clause reads as follows:

“I hereby bequeath and give to my son Barnabas E. Staats all my shares of stock in the Wells, Fargo & Company Express, to be held in trust by my executors ten years from and after my decease, then to be delivered and transferred to him. If deceased, do and continue the same to his son William, now in his eighth year of age. The dividends shall be collected, when and as declared, by my executors, until transferred and delivered & paid to my son, or, if deceased, to his son William. If both are deceased before the ten years have expired, then transfer and deliver the said shares to my daughter Lydia Anna Staats and Mary Yates Staats, each share and portion equal. If either daughter is deceased, her portion shall be transferred and delivered to the remaining daughter. If both are deceased, then this bequest shall be given to my daughter-in-law, wife of my son John H. Staats, or their heirs, and my daughter-in-law Harriet Staats, or her heirs, each share and portion equal.”

This language, though somewhat inartificial and obscure, does not extend the period of the suspension of alienation beyond the life of testator’s son Barnabas and grandson William. If both of these lives expire before the limitation of 10 years fixed for vesting in one of them “have expired, then transfer and deliver said shares to my daughter Lydia Anna Staats and Mary Yates Staats, each share and portion' equal.” The clause then provides for the vesting at that time of this stock, if any of the persons first named are dead. There can be little doubt but that this clause limits the suspension to the time of the death of Barnabas and his son William, if both die before the expiration of the 10 years. It will be observed that this disposing clause is independent of any other, and its execution does not impair any other rights under the will, except as it may diminish the residuum óf the testator’s estate. Was this provision of the will an illegal suspension of the power of alienation, or an illegal accumulation of the income of the stock? In Dodge v. Pond, 23 N. Y. 69, it was held that:

“A testator, without violating any law, may not only suspend the absolute ownership of his estate during the continuation of any two lives in being at his death, but may dispose of the income annually as it accrues during this period of suspension. He may also give vested legacies, and provide for their payment at a future period.”

The court also held, in that case, that it is no violation of the statute against accumulations for a testator, after rendering his estate inalienable for two lives, to give a pecuniary legacy payable at a future period, in such a manner as to show that he intended that they should be paid exclusively from income as it accrued,; leaving the corpus of the estate to pass unimpaired to the residuary legatee.

In Schermerhorn v. Cotting, 331 N. Y. 58, 29 N. E. 980, Peckham, J., in discussing a question similar to the one raised on this clause, uses this language:

[672]*672“A limitation of a trust estate for an arbitrary period of time, such as fifty years, is valid, provided a termination at an earlier period is called for by the expiration of two lives in being at the time of the creation of the trust. If provision is made for such termination, the income of the estate may in the mean time be divided among any number of successive lives.”

Applying the principle of these decisions to the provisions of the second disposing clause in the will under consideration, it cannot be held void for. an alleged suspension of the vesting of this stock, or of the suspension of the power of alienation. We must therefore hold that, the conclusion of the learned judge upon this disposing clause in the will was erroneous, and the clause must therefore be upheld as a valid disposition of these stocks. This is upon our construction of the clause that the trust estate terminates with the death of the two lives in being at the time of the creation of the estate, if they die within the 10 years. If they, or either of them, are still living at the end of the 10 years, then the estate vests in Barnabas, if alive; if dead, then In William, if alive; and, if both die within the 10 years, then, immediately on the happening of that event, it vests in such of the other persons as may be, under the will, entitled to it, even though the 10-year limit has not expired. This construction we believe to be in harmony with the intention of the testator, and not in violation of any rule of law. Nor do we believe that the limitations over, after the death of Barnabas and his son within 10 years, too remote to enable them to take in the order of their survivorship, as designated in the will. On the happening of such event the title would devolve on the person entitled to take eo instante.

We think the third disposing clause comes clearly within the prohibition of the statute, as it is limited only by a definite period of time, not dependent upon the expiration of two lives in being, and is, within the provisions of the statute, absolutely void. Upon this clause we are urged by the learned counsel for the beneficiaries to follow what is claimed to be the manifest intention of the testator, and uphold the bequest. But we are not at liberty to violate the plain language of the statute, and the well-authenticated and authoritative adjudications to uphold the intention of the testator. In Underwood v. Curtis, 127 N. Y. 523, 28 N. E. 585, it is held that a provision by which the possession of personal property, and the legal estate therein, are vested in a trustee during the continuance of the trust, the absolute ownership of such property is suspended, and the validity of the trust—the duration of such suspension—must be limited to two lives in being, and not to a term of years, however short. Smith v. Edwards, 23 Hun, 223.

As to the fourth disposing clause in said will, the learned counsel for Mary Staats (now Mary Staats Blade) insists that the devise of the real estate therein made is absolute, and that no trust is created, in fact, as to the same. The language of that provision is as follows:

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Related

Schermerhorn v. . Cotting
29 N.E. 980 (New York Court of Appeals, 1892)
Greene v. . Greene
26 N.E. 739 (New York Court of Appeals, 1891)
Phelps' v. . Pond
23 N.Y. 69 (New York Court of Appeals, 1861)
Underwood v. . Curtis
28 N.E. 585 (New York Court of Appeals, 1891)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
26 N.Y.S. 670, 81 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 297, 56 N.Y. St. Rep. 269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/montignani-v-blade-nysupct-1893.