Parrish Trust

23 Pa. D. & C.2d 167, 1961 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 359
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County
DecidedFebruary 7, 1961
Docketno. 437 of 1960
StatusPublished

This text of 23 Pa. D. & C.2d 167 (Parrish Trust) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Parrish Trust, 23 Pa. D. & C.2d 167, 1961 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 359 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1961).

Opinion

Shoyer, J.,

This trust arises under deed of trust of Morris L. Parrish dated April 16, 1925, whereby settlor transferred the property therein described to the accountant, in trust, to pay out of the net income $500 per month to Frances Devens Parrish for life, with provision that if income in his lifetime should be insufficient at any time, he would supply the deficiency, or if it should be insufficient at any time after his death, such deficiency should be paid out of principal, and with the further provision that any surplus income should be accumulated and added to principal, and, upon the death of the annuitant, to distribute the balance remaining in trust to such persons, and for such estates* as settlor by will might limit and appoint.

The annuitant, Frances Devens Parrish, survives, and the trust continues.

Settlor died a resident of New Jersey on July 8, 1944, leaving a will dated February 23, 1943, by item [169]*169four of which he expressly exercised the power reserved in the deed and appointed the balance remaining in trust at the death of the annuitant to the trustee named in the deed in further trust to pay the net income therefrom 40 percent to Cuthbert Parrish, 40 percent to Ethel Parrish and the remaining 20 percent of the income to his niece, Alice R. Turner, and provided that upon the death of any of the named income beneficiaries, the principal from which such beneficiary had received the income should be paid to the Endowment Fund of the Philadelphia Club until such payments totaled $50,000, and that thereafter the balance of principal upon the termination of the life estates should be distributed to the trustee of settlor’s residuary estate for the uses and purposes set forth in settlor’s will.

By item six of the will, settlor gave the residue of his estate to the trustee named therein, in trust, to pay the net income therefrom one half to his nephew, Cuthbert Parrish, and the other one half to his nephew, Hugh Roberts Parrish, for their respective lives, and, upon the death of either nephew, to distribute such share of principal to the children of such deceased nephew and to the issue of any deceased child, per stirpes.

It is stated that settlor’s niece, Alice R. Turner, one of the beneficiaries appointed to receive a share of income under the deed after the death of the annuitant, died on February 16, 1956.

Cuthbert Parrish and Ethel Parrish, the other beneficiaries appointed to receive income under the deed, survive.

As to the beneficiaries of income under settlor’s residuary trust, Cuthbert Parrish, entitled to one half thereof, survives, but Hugh Roberts Parrish, entitled to the other one half, died a resident of Chester County, [170]*170Pa., on March 5, 1956, leaving to survive him three children, Hugh M. Parrish, Cynthia Parrish Black and Lucy W. Parrish, and it is stated that the principal of such share of residue was distributed to the children as provided in settlor’s will.

The account was filed to enable the accountant to submit for determination (a) whether settlor’s direction to accumulate surplus income is invalid, and, if so, (b) to whom are such accumulations distributable? Accountant has submitted a calculation (hereto annexed) which shows that, of the net income accumulated, $16,146.52 arose in settlor’s lifetime and $21,-606.79 arose after his death.

Since the trust was created in 1925, the provisions of the Estates Act of April 24, 1947, P. L. 100, which applies only to conveyances effective on or after January 1,1948, are not applicable.

The applicable statute is the Act of April 18, 1853, P. L. 503, 20 PS §3251, of which the pertinent provisions are as follows:

“No person . . . shall, after the passing of this act, by any deed, . . . settle, or dispose of any . . . property, so and in such manner that the [income] thereof, shall be wholly or partially accumulated for any longer term than the life ... of any such grantor . . . and the term of twenty-one years from the death of any such grantor, . . . that is to say, only after such decease during the minority ... of any person . . . who, under the uses and trusts of the deed, . . . directing such accumulation, would, for the time being, if of full age, be entitled to the [income] so directed to accumulate, and in every case where any accumulation shall be directed otherwise . . ., such direction shall be null and void insofar as it shall exceed the limits of this act, and the [income] so directed to be accumulated contrary to the provisions of this act, shall go to and be received by such person or persons [171]*171as would have been entitled thereto if such accumulation had not been directed.” Section 9.

The deed provides that the trustee shall apply the income (a) to the payment of all taxes and reasonable and proper expenses, charges and commissions, (b) to the payment of $500 on the first day of each month beginning May 1, 1925, to Frances Devens Parish so long as she shall live, and (c) “to retain any surplus income remaining in the trust . . .” and that “such accumulations of income so remaining shall be treated as ‘principal’ and shall be invested and disposed of as such as herein provided.”

The annuitant, Frances Devens Parrish, claims the accumulations. She contends that the deed expressly provides that the primary purpose of the trust was to produce for her a minimum income of $6,000 annually, and that it must, therefore, be inferred from such language that settlor intended that she should receive all the income. No such language, however, appears in the deed. Settlor placed nonlegal investments in the trust, and in paragraph four of the deed he states: “It is recognized that the primary object of this trust is to produce a minimum income of $6000 per annum, and that the corpus of the trust is not, and probably will not be sufficient at any time to produce that income if invested in the class of securities designated by law as proper investments for trustees.”

He then proceeded to declare that any change in investments should be made with the intention of reinvesting the funds in securities of the same general nature (nonlegal) as those placed in trust by him. In other words, all that settlor declared was that, since nonlegals were placed in the trust originally to produce a minimum income of $6,000 annually, any reinvestments of principal likewise should be in nonlegals. Such a provision furnishes no basis for an inference [172]*172that settlor intended that the annuitant should receive all the income should it exceed $6,000 per annum. Contrary to any such intention is settlor’s express direction in paragraph 1(e) of the deed that the trustee shall retain any surplus income, and that such accumulations shall be treated as principal. While an invalid direction to accumulate may be ignored in disposing of unlawful accumulations, it does not follow that the direction must be ignored in ascertaining settlor’s intention. Settlor clearly provided that the annuitant was to receive $6,000 per annum, to be paid to her in specific installments of $500 per month, and there is no language in the deed from which it can be inferred that she was to receive either more or less than the amount specified. The fact that this deed was executed contemporaneously with a separation agreement, as recited in the preamble, is additional evidence that settlor was seeking only to discharge a financial obligation which he owed the wife cestui que trust, not to assume the role of a benefactor.

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Bluebook (online)
23 Pa. D. & C.2d 167, 1961 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 359, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parrish-trust-paorphctphilad-1961.