Pruyn v. Sears

96 Misc. 200
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 15, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 96 Misc. 200 (Pruyn v. Sears) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pruyn v. Sears, 96 Misc. 200 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1916).

Opinion

Emerson, J.

Thomas A. Sears died in Borne, Oneida county, on October 4, 1915, leaving the defendant Jennie A. Sears, his widow, and three sons him surviving. His oldest son, Floyd, who was then about twenty-four years of age and was married, has had a child born to him since the death of Sears. The two other sons, Howard and Kyle, were then and still are infants, being respectively eighteen and fifteen years of age. The decedent left a last will and testament which was executed on March 9, 1909, whereby he devised to his wife his family residence at No. 207 West Embargo street, Borne, during her life or widowhood, and an annuity of $600 per. year payable $50 per month, and to Daniel N. Cross, of Bombay, thirty shares of the capital stock of the Sears & Pruyn Company of Borne, N. T. All the rest, residue and remainder of his estate he devised and bequeathed to the plaintiffs, his executors and trustees, in trust to collect and receive the income, rents, issues and profits therefrom and out of such income to pay all costs and expenses of executing the trust, including the sum of $300 annually to each of his trustees in lieu of commissions, and also the sum of $600 annually to his wife in monthly payments of $50 each during her life or widowhood, and out of the remainder of said income to pay -and apply the same, or so much as said trustees in their discretion might deem necessary and proper, toward the care, support, maintenance and education of the testator’s three sons until the final distribution of the trust fund as directed in said will. The will then provided for equalizing the amounts to be paid to each of said sons and directed that upon the death or remarriage of his wife his estate should be divided into three separate parts as nearly equal as might be, taking into consideration the amounts advanced for the use of each of said sons, each of which parts should constitute a [205]*205separate trust fund for the benefit of each of said sons or if either of said sons should be dead at that time then the estate to be divided into as many shares as there were surviving sons after equalizing the same as above set forth, and to keep said separate trust funds invested and pay the net income therefrom quarterly to each of said surviving sons until they respectively reached the age of twenty-five years, or if they reached that age before her death or remarriage then until ner said death or remarriage, and that upon arriving at that age or if it occurred before her death or remarriage then at her death or remariage to pay and turn over to said beneficiaries the trust fund so held for their benefit with all accumulations thereon.

The will further provided that said trustees should in their discretion retain the interest and share of the testator in the Sears & Pruyn Company until the termination of the trust or until such time as in their judgment and discretion they might determine that the business was unprofitable and unremunerative; in that event they were authorized to sell and dispose of the same and invest the share thereof which belonged to the testator.

It was also provided that if in the judgment of said trustees any of his sons were not leading a wise or useful life they might withhold the payment over to him of such trust fund on his arriving at the age of twenty-five years, or the death or remarriage of his wife, and to hold such trust fund and continue to pay over to such beneficiary the income only until such time as said trustees should be satisfied that such beneficiary was entitled to be entrusted with the same." -

The evidence shows that the testator left an estate of about $142,000 and was indebted about the' sum. of $20,000'. Included in the- estate thus left by- him was the house and lot devised to his wife- of the value of [206]*206about $12,000, thus showing net assets in the hands of the trustees amounting to about $110,000, which produces an annual income of about $12,000.

The first question that arises relates to the construction of the devise to the wife of the family residence during her life or widowhood. The evidence shows that the residence faces West Embargo street and in the rear of the residence, but upon the same lot, is a barn which faces a street running alongside said residence. At the time the will was drawn in 1909 this barn was used for the testator’s team of horses and his automobile, but later and at his death it was used for the purpose of storing and the sale of automobile accessories by one of the testator’s sons. The trustees now desire the instruction of the court as to whether the barn passed under the devise of the family residence to the wife. It seems to me entirely clear that it so passed. While the general rule is that a will speaks from the death of the testator in order to arrive at the intention of the testator it is proper to consider the conditions as they existed when the will was drawn Doe v. Provoost, 4 Johns. 61, 63; Shutters v. Johnson, 38 Barb. 81; Bumpus v. Bumpus, 79 Hun, 526; Stimson v. Vroman, 99 N. Y. 79.

Thus fortified with information it appears that the testator must have regarded the barn as part and parcel of the residence property. It was built upon the same lot and was used for purposes incidental to the family residence. I, therefore, conclude that the use of the barn passed to the wife for her life or widowhood under the second clause of the will.

The next question relates to-the legacy to Daniel N. Cross of thirty shares of the capital stock of the corporation known as Sears & Pruyn of Borne, N. Y. Upon this subject the evidence shows that at the time the will was drawn there was a corporation called Sears [207]*2076 Pruyn doing business at Borne and Watertown, but later the Borne business was closed up, the corporation dissolved and a new corporation of the name of Sears & Pruyn, Inc., organized doing business at Watertown only, to which new corporation all the assets of the old corporation were transferred. Assuming that the testator in making this legacy had in mind the stock he then held in the Sears & Pruyn Company, I do not think, the change in the corporate business constituted an ademption of the legacy even though it be regarded as specific. Walton v. Walton, 7 Johns. Ch. 258, 265.

But on the contrary the legacy was general and the rule as to ademption in such cases is much less rigorous. Gardner v. Printup, 2 Barb. 85; Beck v. McGillis, 9 id. 35, 56-59; Crawford v. McCarthy, 159 N. Y. 514, 519; Matter of King, 122 App. Div. 354.

It is, however, a sufficient answer to the question to say that the legacy refers to such stock in the Sears & Pruyn Company as the testator might possess at his death, as the general rule is that the will speaks from that date and this case presents no exception to the rule. Brundage v. Brundage, 60 N. Y. 544, 549; Waldo v. Hayes, 96 App. Div. 454.

But by far the more important and difficult question relates to the validity of the trust which the testator declared in the residue of his property. The statute declares that the absolute power of alienation shall not be suspended for more than two lives in being at the time the estate is created and that such power of alienation is suspended when there are no persons in being by whom an absolute estate in possession can be conveyed. Pers. Prop. Law, § 11; Real Prop. Law, § 42; Sawyer v. Cubby, 146 N. Y. 192.

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Bluebook (online)
96 Misc. 200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pruyn-v-sears-nysupct-1916.