Sherman v. Sherman

143 N.E.2d 689, 336 Mass. 254, 1957 Mass. LEXIS 623
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedJune 28, 1957
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 143 N.E.2d 689 (Sherman v. Sherman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sherman v. Sherman, 143 N.E.2d 689, 336 Mass. 254, 1957 Mass. LEXIS 623 (Mass. 1957).

Opinion

Counihan, J.

This is a bill in equity in which the plaintiff seeks to compel Mary K. Bagdonas, hereinafter called the defendant, to turn over to Franklin J. Sherman, the executor under the will of Victor J. Kingsley, certain bank deposits and securities alleged to have been the property of Victor so that they may be applied in satisfaction of an alleged indebtedness of Victor to the plaintiff.

Without reciting in detail the allegations of the bill which is a long one, the plaintiff in substance alleges that for many years prior to Victor’s death she performed extensive services for him, and, at his request, for his brothers, for which she was never paid, and that Victor orally promised her that if she would care for him for the rest of his life, he would repay her by leaving his entire estate to her by will. Such a will was executed in 1951 and was admitted to probate following Victor’s death in 1953. She further alleges that, about three months after the execution of his will, Victor and the defendant executed a trust indenture by which practically all of the property which the plaintiff expected to receive went into a trust of which the defendant was trustee and remainderman. This property, the plaintiff alleges, originally was received by Victor from William, his brother, as an outright gift and the transfer of it into a trust was fraudulent as to the plaintiff, a creditor of Victor.

The defendant’s answer denied the existence of any indebtedness from Victor to the plaintiff and further denied that there was ever a gift from William to Victor. She pleaded that this property was originally given to Victor and his brother Edward by William upon an oral trust by which Victor and Edward were to receive the income for their lives and upon their deaths all of such property was to go to the defendant and her children.

The suit was referred to a master who filed a report which was confirmed. This report was a carefully prepared and illuminating one, although necessarily long because of the contentions of the parties. No useful purpose will be served by a detailed recital of his findings or the summaries of evidence which accompanied it. The material facts found by [256]*256the master may be summarized as follows. William Kings-ley, his brothers Edward and Victor, and the defendant, their niece, were the only persons who originally had any interest in the bank deposits and securities involved in this suit. William, who was a physician, early moved to Arizona and settled in Phoenix where he established a lucrative practice. In 1946 he returned to Massachusetts because of ill health and went to live with the defendant at 122 Naples Road, Brookline, where Edward and Victor were also living. William had for several years paid for the maintenance and upkeep of that home. Neither Edward nor Victor, to say the least, had been successful in the practice of their professions as dentists.

Shortly after William took up his abode with his niece, the defendant, and his two brothers, he decided to-dispose of all of his property in such a way that he, his brothers, and the defendant would be taken care of during their lives. To that end he conveyed a business building which he owned in Phoenix to the defendant upon the understanding, agreed to by her, that he would control and direct the disposition of the net income of such property. This income was deposited in several checking accounts in a Boston bank in the name of the defendant and was used for the upkeep of the home on Naples Road. At about the same time in 1946 he transferred all other bank deposits and securities which he then owned to Edward and Victor upon an oral trust with the understanding, assented to by them, that although the title to the deposits and securities was in their names, he would control and direct the use of all income therefrom for the benefit of himself, Edward, Victor and the defendant, and that after he, Edward and Victor died all the remainder should go to the defendant.

This plan was followed. The master expressly found that neither Edward nor Victor ever considered the transferred property to be theirs, free from the obligations imposed by William. They never exercised any dominion over this property nor asserted any rights of ownership except those that Victor later asserted in 1950.

[257]*257At the time William set up this oral trust or shortly thereafter, he consulted an attorney concerning Federal tax obligations on account of these transactions. He did not fully disclose to the attorney the understandings and agreements he had made with his brothers. Pursuant to such information as he had the attorney prepared a tax return on the assumption that outright gifts had been made and gift taxes were paid. The tax return was signed by the defendant as attorney in fact for William.

Edward died on May 13, 1947. William then directed that Victor transfer to the defendant and Victor jointly all of the property in the oral trust except an account in a Canadian bank which William directed should be turned over to the defendant. Victor was given a power of attorney to make withdrawals on this account.

William died in February, 1948. Before his death he wrote Victor several notes. In one he told Victor to give all “my money that is left back to our family.” In another he told Victor that he wanted none “of my money to go to strangers.” In yet another note he directed Victor to turn over to the defendant all securities and moneys in banks in Canada and Massachusetts and stated he had instructed her to pay Victor $250 a month during his Ufe. He expressly stated that “I want all my money to go to our own people none of it to Mrs. Sherman or her children.”

After William’s death the defendant directed Victor’s attention to these notes and he acknowledged that they were consistent with the oral trust set up by William in 1946 and with the joint ownership created in 1947. In 1950 Victor demanded a substantial part of the bank deposits and securities from the defendant. Upon her refusal they each consulted a rehable and reputable attorney. After negotiations which lasted several months, they entered into an indenture of trust prepared by their attorneys and executed in their presence. Prior to this they had agreed that the defendant turn over to Victor a specified amount of cash. The indenture provided that the defendant would hold [258]*258certain, securities in trust to pay Victor $330 monthly during his life and at his death all the remainder should go to the defendant free of all trusts. The master further found that although Victor made a will on July 10, 1951, leaving all of his property to the plaintiff, a definite understanding had been arrived at by Victor and the defendant relative to the terms of the indenture prior to the execution of Victor’s will. During the course of the negotiations Victor admitted to both attorneys that he felt there was an obligation to keep all the deposits and securities in the Kingsley family so that all of the property that had been William’s should ultimately go to the defendant.

The master expressly found that, although the plaintiff performed many services for Victor and his brothers, at no time prior to 1950 did she expect any remuneration for her acts of kindness to Victor or his brothers nor did Victor at any time consider himself under any obligation to pay her for such services.

Upon the coming in of the report of the master the plaintiff filed forty-four objections which under Rule 90 of the Superior Court (1954) became exceptions.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
143 N.E.2d 689, 336 Mass. 254, 1957 Mass. LEXIS 623, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sherman-v-sherman-mass-1957.