Moxley v. Title Insurance & Trust Co.

165 P.2d 15, 27 Cal. 2d 457, 163 A.L.R. 838, 1946 Cal. LEXIS 323
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 4, 1946
DocketL. A. 18982
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 165 P.2d 15 (Moxley v. Title Insurance & Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moxley v. Title Insurance & Trust Co., 165 P.2d 15, 27 Cal. 2d 457, 163 A.L.R. 838, 1946 Cal. LEXIS 323 (Cal. 1946).

Opinions

SPENCE, J.

By this action plaintiff sought to terminate a testamentary trust prior to the time expressly provided for such termination. General and special demurrers to plaintiff’s amended complaint were sustained without leave to amend, a judgment of dismissal was entered, and plaintiff appeals therefrom.

In her amended complaint plaintiff sets forth the establishment and operation of the trust as follows: The trust was created by the will of plaintiff’s mother, Mabelle E. Kent, which will was executed on September 19, 1932. Under the terms of the trust the Title Insurance and Trust Company and Sidney B. Kent were named as trustees, with the direction that “the entire net income of said trust estate shall be held and accumulated by said trustees and reinvested by them for the beneficiaries thereof hereinafter named; provided, that any part of said net income may be paid, applied and expended by said trustees in their absolute discretion for support, care and education of’’ plaintiff. It was also pro[460]*460vided that when plaintiff should reach the age of 35 years, the trust estate and all accumulations thereof should be transferred and delivered to her, whereupon the trustees were to be discharged from the trust; that if plaintiff should die before reaching the age of 35 years, the trust estate and accumulations should be transferred and delivered to any child or children of plaintiff; but in the event plaintiff should die without issue before reaching the age of 35 years, said trust estate should be transferred to any beneficiary designated by the deed or testamentary disposition of plaintiff, and in the absence of such appointment, to certain other named beneficiaries.

Mabelle E. Kent, the trustor, died on October 14, 1932, and on March 16, 1934, the trust estate was distributed to the trustees, who entered upon their duties and continued to act as joint trustees until the death of Sidney R. Kent, plaintiff’s father, on March 19, 1942. Since then the corporate trustee has acted alone.

It is next alleged that plaintiff has no living issue, and that she has conveyed all her interest in the trust to her husband “to take effect in the event that plaintiff herein should die without issue surviving her before reaching the age of” 35 years. Named as defendants in this action to terminate the trust are the corporate trustee, Title Insurance and Trust Company; plaintiff’s husband, E. D. Moxley; “contingent remaindermen under said trust”; and R. E. Allen, appointed on petition of plaintiff as “guardian ad litem for any child or children now unborn but who may be living at the time of the death of plaintiff herein should said plaintiff die before she reaches the age of 35 years. ’ ’

It is further alleged in the amended complaint that “notwithstanding the provisions of the trust that the plaintiff should receive the entire trust estate, together with the accumulations thereof, upon reaching the age of 35, it was contemplated by plaintiff’s mother at the time of the creation of said trust that should the occasion arise or circumstances exist warranting the earlier termination of said trust for the purpose of relieving plaintiff from any undue hardship or unexpected contingency, the trust could be earlier terminated”; that such “circumstances exist” in' that, when the will creating the trust was executed, plaintiff was a schoolgirl 15 years of age, living with her mother, and not capable of looking after her financial affairs; that it was contemplated by the trustor, plaintiff’s mother, that if she should die before [461]*461plaintiff should attain the age of 35 years, plaintiff would live with her father, Sidney R. Kent, who would provide for her independently of the trust, and therefore it would be unnecessary for plaintiff to receive the corpus of the trust prior to her attainment of the designated age; that the trustor believed that plaintiff’s father, then living, would participate in the management of the trust, but by reason of his death, this- is no longer possible; that the income from the trust is negligible and wholly inadequate to support plaintiff in a manner consistent with her station in life; that plaintiff’s income apart from the trust is similarly insufficient; that by reason of her father’s death, plaintiff is unable to have comforts and necessities and to buy a home as she could if her father were alive; that plaintiff is now 26 years of age, happily married and living with her husband, capable of managing the estate left in trust by her mother, and is desirous of purchasing a home; that “the conditions aforesaid have arisen since the creation of the trust . . . and said situation was not contemplated by plaintiff’s mother and therefore no provision was made for the same. ’ ’

It is further alleged that the primary purpose of the trust was to protect plaintiff during her minority in providing for her support, education and maintenance; that such purpose has been accomplished; that the interests of the remainder-men are secondary to those of plaintiff; that the trust is not a spendthrift trust nor made irrevocable by its terms “making it incapable of termination before the full period prescribed for its duration.”

It is further alleged that plaintiff’s father by will created a trust and gave plaintiff a testamentary power of appointment of the trust estate; that plaintiff for “valuable consideration, did irrevocably . . . appoint as beneficiaries any child or children which might be born to the plaintiff who might be living when she reached the age of 35 years and that ... by virtue of such irrevocable . . . appointment under the Last Will and Testament of the plaintiff . . . the issue of plaintiff’s body, if any there be, should she die before reaching the age of 35 will not be prejudiced . . . and for said reason there is not nor "can there be any hostility of interest between plaintiff and such defendant contingent remaindermen.” According to the amended complaint the securities in the trust created by plaintiff’s mother have a value of about $37,500, while the value of plaintiff’s interest in the [462]*462trust created by her father is alleged to be “in excess of the sum of one-half million dollars.”

Both the corporate trustee and the guardian ad litem for the contingent remaindermen demurred to the amended complaint upon the following grounds: (1) Failure to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action; (2) lack of jurisdiction of the court; and (3) defect of parties defendant in that unborn contingent remaindermen were not and could not be represented in the action. The order of the court sustaining the demurrers is general in its terms and does not indicate the grounds upon which the court acted. In such situation the law is settled that “If the demurrer is well taken as to any of the grounds stated therein, then the order of the court sustaining the demurrer must be affirmed by the reviewing court.” (Haddad v. McDowell, 213 Cal. 690, 691-692 [3 P.2d 550], and authorities there cited.) Plaintiff’s pleading here is vulnerable to defendants’ first point of objection above enumerated, and the other grounds of demurrer need not therefore be considered. (Hays v. Temple, 23 Cal.App.2d 690, 696 [73 P.2d 1248].)

In Fletcher v. Los Angeles Trust & Sav. Bank, 182 Cal. 177 [187 P. 425], the rule is stated as follows at pages 179-180: “Where . . .

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 P.2d 15, 27 Cal. 2d 457, 163 A.L.R. 838, 1946 Cal. LEXIS 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moxley-v-title-insurance-trust-co-cal-1946.