Murphy v. Graham

110 N.E.2d 68, 349 Ill. App. 44, 1952 Ill. App. LEXIS 465
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 30, 1952
DocketGen. No. 45,683
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 110 N.E.2d 68 (Murphy v. Graham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murphy v. Graham, 110 N.E.2d 68, 349 Ill. App. 44, 1952 Ill. App. LEXIS 465 (Ill. Ct. App. 1952).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Robson

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from a decree of the superior court of Cook county construing the will of Ernest R. Graham, deceased, and particularly the Fifth Article thereof. The action was brought by the trustees for instructions as to the proper administration of a trust created by the will.

The will after providing for the payment of debts, claims and taxes, left testator’s personal effects to his wife, Rnby Graham; gave her a life estate in the family residence in Chicago, with remainder to the American School of Fine Arts, an Illinois corporation, hereinafter called “School,” gave his wife the use for her lifetime of a portrait of him by Orpen with remainder to the School, and gave to the School his Architectural Library and his collection of reproductions of old masters. Then follows the controversial article, the relevant portions of which are as follows:

“Fifth: I direct my executors, hereinafter named, to set aside and retain in their hands as trustees such an amount in value of the personal property constituting part of my estate at the time of my death as they may select and deem sufficient, so that at all times during the life of the trust by this article created the net amount in each year derived therefrom will be sufficient to provide for the payment of the several annuities from time to time payable under this article of my will, so that the principal of the trust fund hereunder shall at all times during the life of this trust remain intact in the hands of my said trustees, except as the same may be reduced by reason of the death of the beneficiaries hereunder, as hereinafter provided.

“Said fund shall be held by my said trustees, and the survivors and survivor of them, and their successors in trust, for the uses and purposes and with the powers hereinafter set forth:

“In each year from and after my death, I direct my said trustees to make the following payments out of the net income derived from said trust estate:”

The payments so directed are as follows:

To his wife, Ruby Graham, $30,000

To his son, William Graham, 6,000

To his sister, Myrtis S. Graham, 2,000

To his brother, Herbert E. Graham, 2,000

To his half-brother, Frank Graham, .2,000

To Wilber E. Post, 2,000

To William 0. Thompson, 2,000

To Katie Wilson, 800

After so providing, the will directs as follows:

“All of the net income remaining in the hands of my said trustees at the end of each year, after paying the foregoing annuities in full, shall be paid over to said American School of Fine Arts.”

It then directs that as and when the several beneficiaries die the trustees should transfer to the School the proportionate part of the trust estate previously held by them for the purpose of paying the annuity of the beneficiary who had died; that upon the death of the last beneficiary the trust should terminate and all of the trust estate then remaining transferred to the School; that all the payments of income to the beneficiaries should be made at least quarterly in each year and deemed to accrue from the date of decedent’s death to the date of death of said beneficiaries respectively. Beneficiaries Katie Wilson and William O. Thompson died prior to institution of this action. The other beneficiaries are living.

The controversy arises between the School and the beneficiaries because during the years 1942 to 1946, both inclusive, the net income from the trust was insufficient to make the payments provided for in the Fifth Article. There was an aggregate deficiency of $197,350.91. The net income of the trust for the years 1947 to 1950, inclusive, exceeded the aggregate amounts provided to be paid under the Article by $166,365.13. Such excess income was paid to the School, subject to the terms of certain agreements, under which the School agreed to pay to the trustees such amount or amounts as any court of competent jurisdiction or the interested parties by agreement in writing should determine was to be paid to the beneficiaries by the trustees to make up or settle the deficiencies claimed by them for the years 1942 to 1946, both inclusive.

The trial court held that under the provisions of the Fifth Article of the will, it was not the intention of the testator to make any of the payments from the net income cumulative so that a deficiency occurring in any year or years would be a charge against future surplus income. The beneficiaries contend that the testator in using the language, ‘1 after paying the foregoing annuities in full,” intended that the excess net income received from any year over and above the aggregate amount payable to the beneficiaries, should first be used for the repayment of any deficiencies in the payment to the beneficiaries before mailing payments to the School.

It has been many times stated that the cardinal purpose in the construction of a will is to determine the intention of the testator. Halderman v. Halderman, 342 Ill. 550, 553. To determine this, the words of the will must be read in the light of the circumstances under which it was made, including in this the extent and condition of the testator’s property as well as his relation to his family and to the beneficiaries named. This process requires a consideration of all the provisions of the will taken as a whole. Each part must be read in connection with every other part and with the general plan of the testator. Vollmer v. McGowan, 409 Ill. 306, 311. Monarski v. Greb, 407 Ill. 281.

In the light of these familiar canons of construction, we must analyze the record in an attempt to ascertain the intention of the testator. Before doing so, however, we must first dispose of an issue raised by the beneficiaries in a motion to strike certain portions of the answer of the School and to strike a paragraph of-the complaint filed by the trustees which set forth facts pertaining to the creation by the decedent during his lifetime of certain trusts for the members of his family. The basis of the motion was that such allegations were prejudicial to the position of the beneficiaries and that it was unnecessary to go beyond the four corners of the will to determine testator’s intention. There is no specific language .in the will making provision for the payment of deficiencies to beneficiaries and to arrive at the intention of the testator we must, as before stated, take into account the extent and condition of the testator’s property as well as his relation to his family and to the beneficiaries. To follow this general rule of testamentary construction we must consider the trusts created by the decedent for the beneficiaries during his lifetime. (Moody Bible Institute v. Pettibone, 289 Ill. App. 69; Abrahams v. Sanders, 274 Ill. 452; Sartain v. Davis, 323 Ill. 269.) The motions were properly denied.

The record discloses that the testator was a highly successful and well known Chicago architect enjoying a national reputation. The firms with which he was associated as a partner were architects of many notable buildings in Chicago and other cities of the United States and Europe. He was an able business man.

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Bluebook (online)
110 N.E.2d 68, 349 Ill. App. 44, 1952 Ill. App. LEXIS 465, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murphy-v-graham-illappct-1952.