Northern Trust Co. v. Massenat

232 Ill. App. 314, 1924 Ill. App. LEXIS 82
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 27, 1924
DocketGen. No. 28,876
StatusPublished

This text of 232 Ill. App. 314 (Northern Trust Co. v. Massenat) 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
Northern Trust Co. v. Massenat, 232 Ill. App. 314, 1924 Ill. App. LEXIS 82 (Ill. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Thomson

delivered the opinion of the court.

The Northern Trust Company, as trustee, under the will and the codicil of Sidney A. Kent, deceased, filed this bill in chancery, seeking an interpretation and, construction of the language found in the third para-! graph of “Item Eight” of the codicil and also seeking the ratification and approval of its accounts as trustee, from the inception of the trust, to and including April 30, 1923. The decree, which was entered in the cirr cuit court, did ratify and approve those accounts of the trustee, and no objection has been made nor any question raised by any of the parties to that part of the decree.

The testator, Sidney A. Kent, executed his will on June 4, 1897, and on March 15, 1899, he executed a codicil thereto. About a year later he died. There survived him his widow and two daughters, Mrs. Massenat (formerly Mrs. Morris) and Mrs. Legare. The widow died in 1913, and the daughter, Mrs. Legare, died in 1922. The deceased daughter, Mrs. Legare, was survived by her husband and one son, Sidney Kent Legare. The surviving daughter, Mrs. Massenat, has two children, a son and a daughter, the latter of whom is married and also has two children.

Item Eight of the codicil here involved is as follows:

“Item Eight. I direct the Trustee five years after my death to set apart and hold in trust two million ($2,000,000) and to pay the net income therefrom oner half to each of my daughters, Helen L. Morris and Stella Alberta Legare, in quarterly installments during their respective lives.
“If a daughter dies leaving her present husband surviving her I direct the Trustee to pay such husband five thousand dollars ($5,000) per annum in quarterly installments during his life out of the income which would have been payable to such daughter if she had survived.
“If one daughter dies leaving descendants and leaving the other daughter surviving, one-half of the income from the trust fund (less five thousand dollars ($5,000) per annum above provided to be paid to the husband if he survives) shall be paid quarterly to the surviving daughter, and out of the other half the Trustee shall pay to or for the benefit of the descendants of the deceased daughter such amounts from time to time as the Trustee shall consider to be for the best interest and welfare of such descendants respectively, and the equality or inequality of such payments out of the income and the manner of their application shall rest in the sole discretion of the Trustee. Any unexpended income shall be added to the principal.
“If a daughter dies before her mother, leaving no descendants surviving, the income which would be payable to such daughter under the first paragraph of this Item Eight shall be paid one-half to her mother and one-half (less five thousand dollars ($5,000) per annum above provided to be paid to the husband if he survives) to the surviving daughter for the lives of such mother and daughter and on their death, respectively, said income shall be added to the trust fund.
“Upon the death of the latest survivor of my daughters and for fifteen years thereafter and until the death of the latest survivor of the present husbands of said daughters, the Trustee shall apply the income of said trust fund or so much thereof as it shall deem advisable to and for the benefit of the descendants of said daughters with the same discretion as is above conferred and irrespective of all questions of representation as between such descendants.
‘ ‘ Fifteen years after the death of the latest survivor of my daughters, or upon the death of the latest survivors of their present husbands, if they live beyond that period, I direct the Trustee to divide and pay over the said trust fund with any accumulations and additions among the then surviving children of my said daughters in equal portions per capita, the descendants of any deceased children of said daughters to receive the portion of their deceased parents per stirpes.”

It is conceded by all the parties in interest that, under the terms of the will and the codicil (the parties in interest being as stated above), the surviving daughter, Mrs. Massenat, is entitled to receive Cne-half of the income of the trust fund, which estate, at the present time, amounts to approximately $5,000,000. It is further conceded that Mr. Legare, the surviving husband of the deceased daughter, is entitled to receive an annuity of $5,000. That this annuity is payable out of the income which would have been payable to Mrs. Legare, had she survived, is clear. Also, the parties in interest concede that the surviving son of Mrs. Legare is entitled to one-fourth of the income from the trust estate (subject to the discretion of the trustee), being one-half of the income which would have been payable to his mother, Mrs. Legare, had she survived. But the parties are not in agreement as to the proper disposition, under the provisions of the third paragraph of Item Eight of the codicil to the will, of the remainder of the income from the trust estate, that remainder being one-fourth (or one-half of the income which would have been payable to the deceased daughter, Mrs. Legare, had she survived), less the annuity of $5,000 payable therefrom to the surviving husband, Mr. Legare.

It is the contention of the surviving daughter, Mrs. Massenat, that she is now entitled to the one-half of the income from the trust estate, bequeathed to her under the first paragraph of Item Eight of the codicil, and also, under the third paragraph of that Item, the disputed one-fourth of the income from the trust estate, less the annuity payable to Mr. Legare. This was also the position taken by the son of Mrs. Massenat. On the other hand, it is the contention of the surviving son, Sidney Kent Legare, of the deceased sister, Mrs. Legare, that he is entitled not only to the one-fourth of the income from the trust estate, as to ■ which there is no dispute, but also to the other fourth, or, in other words, that his aunt, Mrs. Massenat, is entitled only to the one-half of the income which she was receiving prior to the death of Mrs. Legare, and that he is entitled to the other half, being the half which would have been payable to his mother, had she survived, less the annuity of $5,000 to which his father, Mr. Legare, is entitled. The latter is also the position taken by Mr. Legare, the father of Sidney Kent Legare, and by the daughter of Mrs. Massenat. The two grandchildren of Mrs. Massenat (the children of her daughter) are infants and a guardian ad litem was appointed for them. He supports, in substance, the position taken by the Legares and Mrs. Massenat’s daughter, the mother of his wards.

With respect to the interpretation and construction of the third paragraph of Item Eight of the codicil, the chancellor decreed;

“That the true intent and meaning* of said paragraph Third of said codicil, and particularly of Item Eight thereof, is as follows:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
232 Ill. App. 314, 1924 Ill. App. LEXIS 82, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/northern-trust-co-v-massenat-illappct-1924.