Mueller v. Mueller

135 N.W.2d 854, 28 Wis. 2d 26, 24 A.L.R. 3d 714, 1965 Wisc. LEXIS 808
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJune 25, 1965
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 135 N.W.2d 854 (Mueller v. Mueller) 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
Mueller v. Mueller, 135 N.W.2d 854, 28 Wis. 2d 26, 24 A.L.R. 3d 714, 1965 Wisc. LEXIS 808 (Wis. 1965).

Opinion

Wilkie, J.

Three major issues are presented on this appeal:

1. Did the trial court err in determining that the co-trustees had a duty to diversify the single asset of the trusts, the Worthington stock, and that this duty was breached by the failure to sell in October or November of 1961?

2. Are the beneficiaries of the trusts estopped from making any claim against appellant ?

3. Is appellant entitled to indemnification or contribution from his cotrustee as to any part of the amount of his surcharge on the two testamentary trusts ?

Diversification of the Trusts.

The trial court concluded first that the trustees should have diversified the investments of the three trusts within a reasonable time after October 18, 1958, when the THIRD and FOURTH article trust accounts were approved, and second, that the trustees should have disposed of 80 percent of the Worthington stock in October or November of 1961.

We first consider the trustees’ duty to diversify.

A basic rule of trust administration is that a trustee should diversify investments so as to minimize the risk of loss. The Restatement, 1 Trusts (2d), p. 541, sec. 228, provides:

“Except as otherwise provided by the terms of the trust, the trustee is under a duty to the beneficiary to distribute the risk of loss by a reasonable diversification of investments, unless under the circumstances it is prudent not to do so.” 1

[34]*34Appellant first turns to the terms of the trust instruments and argues that the trustees had the power, under these instruments, to retain the Worthington common stock. However, the inter vivos trust instrument did not authorize the retention of any stock whatsoever and only Mueller common stock could have been retained under the express terms of the article THIRD and FOURTH trusts.2

As to both the article THIRD and FOURTH trusts the will provided:

“[Article FIFTH] (c) Said trustees may in their discretion participate in and make any payments required by arty proceedings for the reorganization, refinancing, dissolution, or other transactions, including the acquisition of stock rights when offered, and may accept substituted or distributed stocks and securities, in respect of any corporate securities subsisting in said trusts.” (Emphasis added.)

Article 6 of the inter vivos trust contained an identical provision. Thus the trust instruments authorized the acceptance of substitute stock (Worthington), but contained no express authorization to retain the substituted stock.

While there is no express provision authorizing the trustees to retain the substituted stock, if the Worthington stock was substantially equivalent to Mueller, the trustees under both the article THIRD and FOURTH trusts (but in no event'under the inter vivos trust) could have retained the Worthington stock once it was received in the exchange [35]*35for Mueller.3 But as appellant himself admitted, Worthing-ton was a considerably different corporation in terms of size, variety of products, and ownership. Accordingly, the stocks were obviously different and it cannot be seriously contended that the stocks were substantially equivalent.

As a further contention in support of his position that the express terms of the testamentary trust instrument (as distinguished from the inter vivos trust instrument) authorized the trustees to hold onto the Worthington stock, appellant cites another provision of the will, to wit article FIFTH, par. (b), which provides:

“My trustees shall have power in their discretion to take, receive, hold, administer, collect, invest, and reinvest the assets of said trust estates, with full power to bargain, sell, and convey at such prices and upon such terms as to them may seem best, or to exchange or otherwise realize upon any or all of the assets of said trust estates as and when said trustees, in their discretion, deetm it advisable. . . (Emphasis added.)

Relying on In re Allis’s Estate,4 Estate of Allis,5 and Welch v. Welch,6 appellant contends that this language, while not specifically sanctioning retention of the substituted stock, was broad enough to have permitted the trustees to do [36]*36so without regard to any statutory limitations. In these three cases, this court held that where sweeping powers are given in regard to investing and reinvesting the trust assets, the trustees are not bound to comply with specific statutory limitations on retention of particular investments. But even with such broad powers, this court held that the trustees are still required to act as prudent and provident persons would act under similar circumstances.7

In Allis the will granted the trustees:

“ . full power and authority in their discretion to invest, reinvest and employ said real estate and generally manage the same; to continue the same as it is invested at the time of my death- — and especially as invested in the E. P. Allis Company, or to change such investments; to receive and collect such profits and income thereof, and to dispose of the net income as follows.’ ” 8

In Welch the trust deed provided that:

“ ‘Said trustees, their survivors and successors, shall have full power and authority to grant, bargain, sell, convey and otherwise dispose of the whole or any part of said property and to invest and reinvest the proceeds of any sales thereof, and to convert-personal property into real property and real property into personal property as they may deem for the best interests of the trust estate, . . ” 9

A comparison of the above-quoted provisions of the Mueller will (Article FIFTH (b)) discloses that the trustees (as to the article THIRD and FOURTH trusts) may well have been empowered to retain the Worthington stock without complying with statutory regulations in regard to the type or class of security retained. However, in the last analysis, and as the Allis and Welch cases held, regard[37]*37less of the trust provisions the ultimate question as to the two testamentary trusts and the inter vivos trust is whether or not the trustees acted prudently in retaining the Worth-ington stock.

Therefore, we now turn from a consideration of the effect of the terms of each trust instrument to an analysis of whether the action of the trustees in not diversifying each of the three trusts was prudent. The late Andrew Carnegie once admonished: “Put all your eggs in one basket and watch the basket.” 10 This may be good advice for some investors, but it is not the prevailing rule governing the investment practices of trustees.11 The rule is diversification. The exception is to retain the stock.

Is there any guide in the statutes as to what is prudent? Ch. 320, the trust-fund-investment chapter, was amended on August 1, 1959, to adopt the “prudent man” investment rule.12 To begin with this statute provides:

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Bluebook (online)
135 N.W.2d 854, 28 Wis. 2d 26, 24 A.L.R. 3d 714, 1965 Wisc. LEXIS 808, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mueller-v-mueller-wis-1965.