Moore Estate

72 Pa. D. & C.2d 444, 1975 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 217
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedApril 8, 1975
Docketno. 1575 of 1934
StatusPublished

This text of 72 Pa. D. & C.2d 444 (Moore Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moore Estate, 72 Pa. D. & C.2d 444, 1975 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 217 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1975).

Opinion

SHOYER, J.,

William J. Moore died on May 26,1933, leaving a will dated February 18, 1927, whereby he gave his residuary estate to his wife, Eva C. Moore, and Girard Trust Company, to pay his brother, Temple B. Moore, $50 monthly from the income and the balance of the income to his wife, during her life, and upon her death to pay certain pecuniary legacies, and the balance to be retained in trust to pay $75 monthly to testator’s niece, Carrie Moore, for life, and the balance of the net income to “be used to assist students male and female of Temple University . . . with said income to be remitted to the Treasurer of said Temple University and apportioned among deserving students by the President and Board of Trustees of said Temple University. . with alternate provision for Shriners Hospital, and, in paragraph 9 of the will, directed “that the balance of income from my said ultimate residuary estate after payment of said annuity to Carrie Moore shall be accumulated until the principal of said estate together with such ac[446]*446cumulations shall amount to five hundred thousand dollars and that thereafter only the income from such combined fund of five hundred thousand dollars shall become available for the purposes of the trust for the students of Temple University or for Shriners Hospital as the case may be.”

The fund being here accounted for was awarded under the adjudication of Sinkler, J., dated October 26, 1934, and schedule of distribution dated May 14, 1935, to the Girard Trust Company in trust for Carrie Moore and Temple University. That adjudication recites, inter aha, that testator’s widow, Eva C. Moore, elected to take against the will, thereby accelerating the provisions effective upon her death, and awarded the widow’s share to her and made awards to the pecuniary legatees.

This account was filed because Carrie Moore, annuitant, died on June 8, 1972. It appearsfrom the statement of proposed distribution that she left no estate subject to administration and no personal representative is to be appointed.

Attached hereto is a waiver by Temple University of a full amount of income.

Also attached is a copy of the notice to the Attorney General as parens patriae of gifts to charities and the clearance certificate executed by James W. Sutton, Jr., Special Assistant Attorney General, as required by *Rule 55.

The statement of proposed distribution and notice to the parties in interest raise the question whether the trust is subject to the provisions of the Charitable Instruments Act of 1971, 10 P.S. §201-206. The notice recites that this act applies to “charitable organizations” under section 509 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, which [447]*447are treated as private foundations under that section of the code. The accountant takes the position that upon the death of the life tenant on June 8, 1972, the trust ceased to be exempt from the classification of a private foundation, as a split interest trust: I.R.C. §4947(2). As of that date, the trust qualified as a private foundation under section 509 of the Tax Reform Act of 1969, amending the Internal Revenue Code. Section 4942 of the I.R.C., as thus amended, subjects the undistributed trust income to the income tax annually. Therefore, despite the fact that paragraph 9 of decedent’s will provides that the trustee is to accumulate income until the trust res is $500,000, it is the position of the trustee that the direction in the will to accumulate is superseded by the Charitable Instruments Act, supra, and, as of June 8, 1972, the trustee may no longer accumulate the income, but is required to distribute it in accordance with paragraph 8 of decedent’s will, as modified by the Charitable Instruments Act. It is the position taken by the accountant that the trust instrument, the will, is deemed to now include the provisions set forth in section 1 (1) of the Charitable Instruments Act, which provides:

“The governing instrument of any charitable organization shall be deemed to include provisions, the effect of which are
“(1) To require distributions for each taxable year in such amounts and at such times and in such manner as not to subject the organization to tax under section 4942 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 . . .”

Counsel for the accountant submitted a memorandum of law in which he points out that [448]*448section 5 (2) of the act provides that the Charitable Instruments Act shall apply “after December 31, 1971, to every charitable organization created before January 1, 1970, unless a court of competent jurisdiction in a proceeding instituted before January 1, 1972, should explicitly decide that the operation of section 1 of this act would substantially impair the accomplishment of the purposes of the charitable organization involved in that proceeding.”

Counsel points out that the court in Finley Trust, 60 D. & C. 2d 38, 22 Fiduc. Rep. 584 (1972, O. C. Div., Allegheny Co.), held that section 1 (1) of the Charitable Instruments Act would substantially impair the purpose of the charitable trust before the court and, therefore, section 1 (1) was inapplicable.

Counsel contends, however, that in Finley, supra, the proceedings to determine the applicability of section 4944 of the I.R.C. to that trust were instituted prior to January 1, 1972, whereas in the trust now before the court, the proceedings were not instituted until January 25, 1973, more than a year after the cut-off date fixed in section 5 (2) of the Charitable Instruments Act.

In view of the foregoing, the court, sua sponte, by decree of Shoyer, J., dated June 12, 1974, appointed James J. Con very amicus curiae.

Mr. Convery’s comprehensive and very able report is hereto attached.

He therein cites Trexler Trust, 24 Fiduc. Rep. 494 (1974, O. C. Div., Lehigh Co.), where President Judge Coyne held that the Charitable Instruments Act of 1971 did not automatically excise a direction that one-fourth of income from the charitable trust there involved be accumulated. In reviewing the [449]*449reasons for enactment of the Charitable Instruments Act, the court stated, at page 498:

“The ‘Explanation’ makes it perfectly clear that the sole purpose of the Act was to make it possible for charitable organizations, if not exempted from the Tax Reform Act in any way, to have their governing instruments reformed without the necessity of a judicial proceeding. ...”

The law of Pennsylvania permits the accumulation of income, inter alia, in a trust for charitable purposes: Probate, Estates and Fiduciaries Code, sec. 6106(b)(1), formerly sec. 6(b)(1) of the Estates Act of 1947, P.L. 100, 20 P.S. §6106(b)(l); Cf. James Est., 414 Pa. 80 (1964), reversing 13 Fiduc. Rep. 636, 31 D. & C. 2d 1 (Orphan’s Court, Phila.).

In James, supra, the Supreme Court in construing section 6(b)(1) of the Estates Act of 1947, as amended, said at pages 85-6:

“We may not view the statute as the mere utilization of words employed in an exclusively literal sense without regard to the social circumstances, charitable needs and public policy surrounding the legislation. So considered, its provisions require the application of a doctrine of reasonableness.” (emphasis supplied.)

Directions in the James Will to accumulate for 400 years were held to be unreasonable and, consequently, void.

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Related

James Estate
199 A.2d 275 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1964)

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Bluebook (online)
72 Pa. D. & C.2d 444, 1975 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-estate-pactcomplphilad-1975.