Ray v. Johnson

199 Cal. App. 2d 550, 18 Cal. Rptr. 886, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 2865
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 29, 1962
DocketCiv. No. 25554
StatusPublished

This text of 199 Cal. App. 2d 550 (Ray v. Johnson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ray v. Johnson, 199 Cal. App. 2d 550, 18 Cal. Rptr. 886, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 2865 (Cal. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

FOX, P. J.

This litigation arose by way of a petition for distribution to the remaindermen of the assets of a testamentary trust upon the death of the income beneficiary. The pleadings constitute an accounting, report and petition filed by the trustees (who are also the remaindermen) and objections thereto filed by the widow and executrix of the estate of the income beneficiary.

[551]*551Lottie Page died testate in 1938, leaving four children as her sole heirs. In August of 1940 the estate was distributed pursuant to a Decree of Distribution which was based on Lpttie’s holographic will. Pursuant to the Decree each of three children, Lottie Ray, Mary Simonsen and Albert Johnson, were given an undivided one-fourth interest in the entire estate. The remaining undivided one-fourth interest was distributed to the same three children as trustees, with the income attributable to that interest to be paid to John Johnson for his life. On John’s death the trust estate was to be distributed to the trustees as remaindermen.

The estate, insofar as is here pertinent, consisted in part of completely unproductive desert land, together with some income properties. The income properties and some of the desert properties were never sold. A number of the desert properties were sold in 1957 and 1958. None of the desert properties ever became productive of income. All of the properties appreciated substantially in value. By her objections to the accounting, John Johnson’s executrix, whom we shall call ‘‘contestant, ’ ’ seeks two things: A portion of the appreciated value of the properties in the estate as “delayed income”; and a surcharge upon the trustees for an alleged breach of trust in not making productive the portion of the estate which produced no income and in not making more productive the remaining portion.

By its judgment the trial court awarded contestant a portion of the appreciated value of the desert properties (both those which were sold and those retained), held that she was not entitled to any of the appreciated value of the income properties, and refused to surcharge the trustees. Both sides, being unsatisfied with the judgment, have appealed.

At this point it would seem appropriate to set forth in its entirety Civil Code section 730.13 of the Principal and Income Law, originally enacted in 1941, on which the judgment is based.

“ (1) Where any part of a principal in the possession of a trustee consists of realty or personalty which for more than a year and until disposed of as hereinafter stated has not produced an average net income of at least 1 per centum per annum of its inventory value as fixed by the appraiser or appraisers regularly appointed by the court, or in default thereof its market value at the time the principal was established or of its cost where purchased or otherwise acquired later, and the trustee is under a duty to change the form of [552]*552the investment as soon as a reasonable price, not representing an undue sacrifice of value, may be obtained and such change is delayed, but is made before the principal is finally distributed, then the tenant shall be entitled to share in the net proceeds received from the property as delayed income to the extent hereinafter stated.

“(2) Such income shall be the difference between the net proceeds received from the property and the amount which, had it been placed at simple interest at the rate of 5 per centum per annum for the period during which the change was delayed, would have produced the net proceeds at the time of change, but in no event shall such income be more than the amount by which the net proceeds exceed the inventory value of the property as fixed by the appraiser or appraisers regularly appointed by the court, or in default thereof its market value at the time the principal was established or its cost where purchased later. The net proceeds shall consist of the gross proceeds received from the property less any expenses incurred in disposing of it and less all carrying charges which have been paid out of principal during the period while it has been unproductive.

“ (3) The change shall be taken to have been delayed from the time when the duty to make it first arose, which shall be presumed in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to be one year after the trustee first received the property if then unproductive, otherwise one year after it became unproductive.

“ (4) If the tenant has received any income from the property or has had any beneficial use thereof during the period while the change has been delayed, his share of the delayed income shall be reduced by the amount of such income received or the value of the use had.

“(5) As between successive tenants, or a tenant and a remainderman, delayed income shall be apportioned in the same manner as provided for income by Section 730.06.”

It will be noticed that 1 percent is the stated test of productivity for the purpose of apportionment. The trial court found that the desert properties which were sold were unproductive and that the trustees were under a duty to sell them within a year, and “imprudently neglected [to sell them] within a reasonable time. ’ ’ The same was found as to the unsold desert properties, and delayed income was computed, the record reveals, according to the formula in section 730.13, subdivision (2). Concerning the income properties in question, it was [553]*553found “That the net income from the trust’s interest in inventory items #1 and #3 did not at any time fall below one percent per annum of the appraised value of said interest." This finding is not challenged and it of course takes the income properties out of the operation of section 730.13. In its conclusions of law the trial court sets forth certain amounts as “delayed income apportionable to John Johnson” from the desert properties. Concerning the income properties, the trial court concluded “That inasmuch as the net income from inventory items #1 and #3 did not at any time fall below one percent per annum, the trustees are deemed to have acted as prudent men in the management of the trust’s interest in said inventory items.”

Contestant challenges the judgment in two ways. She claims that certain allegations of fraud on the part of the trustees were improperly stricken, and that if she were allowed to prove these allegations she would be entitled to a surcharge equal to all the appreciated value of the estate. She further contends that although the 1 percent figure is the dividing line between productive and unproductive property for purposes of section 730.13, the fact that 1 percent was earned on the income properties does not mean that as a matter of law the trustees met their trust responsibility to the income beneficiary with respect to those properties. The trustees’ appeal is based on claims that the evidence is insufficient to establish a duty or the amount of the judgment; that the trial court erred in failing to find on the question of estoppel and various other matters; and that there were certain evidentiary errors.

The contention of the trustees that is dispositive of this appeal is that section 730.13 does not apply to this trust. The decree of distribution establishing the trust became effective in August of 1940. Section 730.02 of the Principal and Income Law reads in part: “This chapter [of which § 730.13 is a part] shall apply to all transactions by which a principal shall be established which become legally effective on or after September 13, 1941.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
199 Cal. App. 2d 550, 18 Cal. Rptr. 886, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 2865, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ray-v-johnson-calctapp-1962.