Newlin Estate

23 Pa. D. & C.2d 25, 1959 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 20
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Montgomery County
DecidedApril 27, 1959
Docketno. 40,976
StatusPublished

This text of 23 Pa. D. & C.2d 25 (Newlin Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Montgomery County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Newlin Estate, 23 Pa. D. & C.2d 25, 1959 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 20 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1959).

Opinion

Taxis, P. J.,

. . . The reason or purpose of the filing of the account now before the court is to determine to whom shall be paid surplus income which exceeds the amounts payable to Annie J. Dowds. Objections to the account were filed by Annie J. Dowds complaining that the accountant has neglected to distribute, on account of past deficit on annuity due the objector, this excess income over the amount required to pay the annuity to Annie J. Dowds from the date of its acquisition to the date of this account. Further, that accountant has neglected to distribute on account of the past deficit of the annuity to objector principal sufficient to cover the full amount of the annuity.

Item second of the will of Grace DeLancey Verplanck Newlin, the portion of her will giving rise to the present controversy, reads as follows:

“Second: The rest, residue and remainder of my estate real and personal I give, devise and bequeath to Girard Trust Company of Philadelphia and, in the exercise of the power of appointment contained in the will of my late father DeLancey Verplanck Newlin of Secane, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, whose death occurred April 28, 1900, I give, devise and bequeath all of the property real and personal over which I have the right of disposition under said power, to Girard Trust Company of Philadelphia, to hold and administer both my said residuary estate and the estate thus bequeathed by my father, without dis[27]*27tinction between them, upon the following trusts, to wit: To invest and reinvest the same and to collect the income thereof and, after paying all proper charges, taxes and expenses, to pay over out of the net income thereof in quarterly instalments the sum of twelve hundred dollars ($1200) per annum to my faithful nurse Annie J. Dowds of Beacon, New York, and the sum of three hundred and sixty dollars ($360) per annum to my faithful servant Michael J. Stack-pole of the same place, during their respective lives; and to pay over, the balance of the net income to my mother Grace Whittemore Newlin during her life. After the decease of each of the two beneficiaries first above named, his or her share of the net income shall be paid to my said mother Grace Whittemore Newlin during her life. Upon the decease of my said mother (subject to the temporary reservation of such portions of the principal of said trust estate as may be necessary to maintain the foregoing payments of income to the two beneficiaries first above named) the entire principal of the trust estate shall be transferred, paid over and distributed in equal portions to and among such of the following eleven persons as shall be then living, viz: [Here is listed 11 persons including Annie J. Dowds.]
“If, at my decease, my aunt Maud Newlin Page is no longer living, I bequeath her share of my estate to her children then surviving. The share of any other beneficiary who shall predecease me shall not be paid to their representatives, but shall be distributed among the surviving beneficiaries. I direct that the share of my estate bequeathed to my aunt Mabel Whittemore Roth shall not be paid to her in cash, but that my Executor shall purchase an equivalent annuity payable to her during her life. Since Annie J. Dowds and Michael J. Stackpole were both in being at the death of my father on April 28, 1900, I have [28]*28been advised that the whole of the foregoing provisions relative to the Trust Estate are legal and en-forcible; but if, on any technical ground, that portion of the foregoing trust in favor of Annie J. Dowds or Michael J. Stackpole which includes property of any kind derived from the estate of my father, shall be judicially held to be invalid and in consequence the income which I have bequeathed to these two beneficiaries shall thereby be reduced to less than the full amount named, then, to the extent necessary to make up for this reduction, and in the exercise of my power of appointment under my father’s will, I direct my Executor to purchase forthwith annuities of such amounts as will replace such deficiencies.”

Approximately 13 months after the date of execution of her will, testatrix executed a codicil thereto, which stated:

“In the second clause of my said will I have directed Girard Trust Company of Philadelphia to pay, out of the income of the trust estate which I have bequeathed to said Company in trust, the sum of twelve hundred dollars ($1200) per annum, in quarterly instalments, to my faithful nurse Annie J. Dowds during her life. I hereby substitute for said sum of twelve hundred dollars ($1200) per annum the sum of eighteen hundred dollars ($1800) per annum, payable in quarterly instalments to said beneficiary.”

Under item second of her will dated March 25,1929, and by codicil thereto dated May 10, 1930, Grace De-Lancey Verplanck Newlin devised and bequeathed the net residue of her estate in trust to “pay over out of the net income thereof in quarterly installments” the sum of $1,800 per year to Annie J. Dowds and the sum of $360 per year to Michael J. Stackpole, during their respective lives, and to “pay over the balance of the net income” to the testatrix’ mother, Grace Whittemore Newlin, during her life. After the death [29]*29of Annie J. Dowds and Michael J. Stackpole, the will directed that “his or her share of the net income” was also to be paid to the testatrix’ mother, Grace Whittemore Newlin, during her life. Upon Grace Whittemore Newlin’s death, the trust was to terminate and the principal was to be distributed outright to such of the 11 named remaindermen as should then be living “subject to the temporary reservation of such portions of the principal of said trust estate as may be necessary to maintain the foregoing payments of income” to Annie J. Dowds and Michael J. Stackpole.

For a number of years the income of the trust was insufficient to provide for the payment in full of the amounts of income thus directed in the will and codicil and substantial arrearages arose with respect to the amounts payable annually to both beneficiaries. Michael J. Stackpole died in 1941. Grace Whittemore Newlin, mother of testatrix, died in 1949. Annie J. Dowds survives. Since 1953, three years after the death of the mother, the income of the trust has been more than sufficient to provide for annual payments in full to Annie J. Dowds, and surplus income in the approximate amount of $2,900 has accumulated. Ten of the remaindermen named in the will survived Grace Whittemore Newlin and of these nine are presently living. Annie J. Dowds is also one of these remaindermen.

Annie J. Dowds has requested this court to decide whether principal can be used to make up the deficiency in the payments of prior years. The accountant has estimated that the total arrearages at present amount to $10,150.

The court is also called upon to determine whether the surplus income is payable to Annie J. Dowds on account of the deficiency for prior years or whether it is payable to the remaindermen.

[30]*30The persuasive argument of counsel for objector nothwithstanding, this ease cannot be disposed of by simply determining that testatrix created an “annuity” in favor of Annie J. Dowds, and then following what might broadly be termed the general rule that deficiencies in annuities may be made up by invasion of the corpus.

In Dwight Estate, 389 Pa. 520 (1957), it was stated that the word “annuity” did not contain any magic requiring a particular method for its payment.

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Related

Dwight Estate
134 A.2d 45 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1957)
Rudolph's Appeal
10 Pa. 34 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1848)
Reed's Estate
85 A. 15 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1912)

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Bluebook (online)
23 Pa. D. & C.2d 25, 1959 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/newlin-estate-paorphctmontgo-1959.