Sanders v. Lowe

55 Pa. D. & C. 611, 1945 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 227
Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lackawanna County·Decided November 21, 1945·No. no. 785·Published

Opinion

Leach, P. J.,

John C. Sander died testate in December 1930. His only bequest was as follows: “I devise that my property (real estate) be held in trust for my daughter Grace E. Sander during her life. In case of her marriage or decease the property can be disposed of as my legal heirs direct.” The legal heirs were one son and seven daughters. All of the daughters except Grace E. Sander were married. His personal estate was of small value estimated at about $100, and the real estate was of the estimated value of $4,000.

Thereafter, all of the other legal heirs of John G. Sander conveyed their interest in the said land to [612]*612Grace E. Sander. The said Grace E. Sander made an agreement to sell the land to defendant for $5,500, and said defendant has refused tender of the deed on the ground that plaintiff does not have an indefeasible fee simple title in the premises.

The construction of wills usually comes before the court because of some quarrel between the objects of the testator’s bounty. In the case at bar it comes before us because the Sander heirs were properly brought up. Their father had the utmost confidence in their good behavior and they proved worthy of that confidence by giving the unmarried sister all of the property.

The sentence “in case of her marriage or decease the property can be disposed of as my legal heirs direct” vested in his legal heirs the power of appointment as defined in A. L. I. Restatement, Property, §318:

“(1) Except as stated in Subsection (2), a power of appointment, as the term is used in this Restatement, is a power created or reserved by a person (the donor) having property subject to his disposition enabling the donee of the power to designate, within such limits as the donor may prescribe, the transferees of the property or the shares in which it shall be received.
“(2) The term power of appointment does not include a power of sale, a power of attorney, a power of revocation, a power to cause a gift of income to be augmented out of principal, a power to designate charities, a charitable trust, a discretionary trust, or an honorary trust.”

All of the donees of this power have interpreted that the life estate was given to Grace E. Sander for her support and the gift is valid even though it provides that the estate shall cease upon her marriage: A. L. I. Restatement, Property, section 424.

“An otherwise effective condition precedent, special limitation, condition subsequent or executory limitation which is designed to prevent the acquisition or [613]*613retention of an interest in land or in things other than land in the event of any first marriage is invalid, unless the dominant motive of the conveyor is to provide support until such marriage, in which case the restraint is valid.”

There is no requirement in the power of appointment given by John G. Sander that his heirs shall be restricted to any particular person, even to an heir, when the power of appointment is exercised.

“Except as stated in §156, if by the terms of a trust it is provided that the trustee shall pay to or apply for a beneficiary only so much of the income and principal or either as the trustee in his uncontrolled discretion shall see fit to pay or apply, a transferee or creditor of the beneficiary cannot compel the trustee to pay any part of the income or principal”: A. L. I. Restatement, Trusts, section 155(1).
“Where discretion is conferred upon the trustee with respect to the exercise of a power, its exercise is not subject to control by the court, except to prevent an abuse by the trustee of his discretion”: A. L. I. Restatement, Trusts, section 187.

No court can say that the Sander heirs abused their discretion by generously giving all of the property to the beneficiary of the trust and furthering the purposes thereof.

The Sander heirs can relinquish and transfer their expected appointive interests.

“An object of a power can, for a fair consideration, by an otherwise effective transaction inter vivos
(а) relinquish his expectant appointive interest, or any part thereof, so that no appointment to him will be effective;
(б) bind his expectant appointive interest, or any part thereof, so that the appointment of any interest to him will give his obligee the right to obtain such appointed interest”: A. L. I. Restatement, Property, section 338.

[614]*614It can be done by deed.

“When the donee, sufficiently identifying property covered by a power, executes a deed purporting to grant the property or leaves a will purporting to devise it, this manifests an intent to exercise the power”: Restatement, Property, section 342.

Construction of the will by Pennsylvania decisions would make the heirs of John G. Sander the trustees for the real estate for the daughter for life. The thing sought to be secured by the trust is the support of the daughter Grace. Whereupon the trust estate “continued no longer than the thing sought to be secured by the trust demands”: Stafford’s Appeal, 258 Pa. 595. Thereupon the trust estate can be collapsed when the support of Grace E. Sander is secured by the property. The rule is as follows (p. 598) :

“The rule is established that, ‘no matter what may be the nominal duration of an estate given to a trustee, it continues in equity no longer than the thing sought to be secured by the trust demands’; and, when that demand has been fully satisfied, ‘although the trust may not have ceased by expiration of time . . ., yet, if all the parties who are or who may be interested in the trust property are in existence and are sui juris, and if they all consent and agree thereto, courts of equity may decree the determination of the trust’: Culbertson’s App., 76 Pa. 145, 148; Sharpless’ Est., 151 Pa. 214, 216; Woodburn’s Est., 151 Pa. 586; Harrar’s Est., 244 Pa. 542, 549; Packer’s Est. (No. 1), 246 Pa. 97, 108-9; see also Disston’s Est., 257 Pa. 537. In the case now before us, all present and future interests in the trust property having been acquired by the remainderman, the ‘thing sought to be secured,’ i. e., the protection of the corpus pending the duration of the life estates, has become unessential. Under such circumstances, it is the right of a cestui que trust to have the legal estate of the trustee declared terminated, even [615]*615against the protest of the latter (Harrar’s Est., 244 Pa. 550, and other authorities, supra); but, as previously noted, here the trustee agrees, which makes the case at bar just that much stronger.”

Late decisions are Allen Estate, 347 Pa. 364; Bowers’ Trust Estate, 346 Pa. 85, and other cases therein cited.

What is the effect of the Act of June 29, 1923, P. L. 914, 21 PS §11?

“The statute, dropping unnecessary words, provides, ‘Hereafter when, ... by the provisions of any . . . will, . . . property . . . shall be . . . devised . . . in trust, for the use ... of any person . . . for life, . . . and which shall provide therein that upon, the termination of the estate . . . for life, . . . the remainder over shall vest in the . . . testator’s heirs or next of kin or the persons thereunto entitled under the intestate laws, or other similar or equivalent phrase,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Sanders v. Lowe, 55 Pa. D. & C. 611, 1945 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 227 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1945).

55 Pa. D. & C. 611 (Sanders v. Lowe) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Allen Estate
32 A.2d 301 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1943)
Bonsall's Estate
135 A. 724 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1926)
Bowers' Trust Estate
29 A.2d 519 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1942)
Culbertson's Appeal
76 Pa. 145 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1874)
Sharpless's Estate
25 A. 44 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1892)
Woodburn's Estate
25 A. 145 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1892)
Harrar's Estate
91 A. 503 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1914)
Thomas v. Herring
91 A. 500 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1914)
Packer's Estate
92 A. 65 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1914)
Disston's Estate
101 A. 804 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1917)
Stafford's Estate
102 A. 222 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1917)