Swanson v. Bates

1949 OK 231, 211 P.2d 781, 202 Okla. 128, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 447
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 25, 1949
DocketNo. 33714
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1949 OK 231 (Swanson v. Bates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Swanson v. Bates, 1949 OK 231, 211 P.2d 781, 202 Okla. 128, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 447 (Okla. 1949).

Opinion

O’NEAL, J.

This is an appeal from an order approving the 4th Annual Report of Carl K. Bates, trustee of the estate of Annie S. Cook, deceased.

Annie S. Cook, a resident of Muskogee county, died testate October 25, 1937. Her will was admitted to probate in Muskogee county November 16, 1937. Said will created a testamentary trust and named I. H. Mertz as executor of the will and also trustee of the trust. Said will, after making six specific bequests, set up the trust estate. It named I. H. Mertz as trustee and devised and bequeathed to said Mertz all the residue and remaining property of testator’s estate in trust for the benefit of testator’s nephew, Frederick S. English; his daughter, Dorothy Eva-lyn English; a friend of testator, Guy E. Black; and two of testator’s faithful servants, James Bruce and Anna Pinah Ferguson, named therein as; “beneficiaries.” The life of the trust is as long as any of the said beneficiaries are living. The trustee, or his successor, is directed to pay and apply “as much of the income or any part thereof, that he may, in his uncontrolled discretion, consider proper to and for the personal support and maintenance or otherwise for the benefit of said beneficiaries.”

The will further provides:

“This Trust Fund shall begin at my death and continue during the life of all the beneficiaries herein named, my nephew Frederick S. English, his daughter, Dorothy Evalyn English, my friend, Guy E. Black and my two servants, James Bruce and Anna Pinah Ferguson, and when all of the above named beneficiaries be dead and their just [130]*130debts and funeral expenses are paid then the Trustee shall sell all of the remaining Estate within Three (3) years after the death of the last living beneficiary, and the proceeds of such sales shall be divided as follows:
“One-fourth as a fund to be used to give loans to deserving young white men of Oklahoma to go through College.
“One-fourth as a fund to be used to give loans to deserving young white women of Oklahoma to go through College.
“One-fourth to endow the Old Folks Home of Muskogee, Oklahoma.
“One-fourth to endow the Day Nursery of Muskogee, Oklahoma.”

Mr. Mertz served as executor until about November 17, 1938, at which time he was removed as executor by the county court, and he was also removed as trustee. Carl K. Bates was appointed administrator with the will annexed; he served until his discharge October 22, 1942, at which time the property was distributed to him as trustee.

There was some litigation growing out of the administration and management of the trust. (For a summary of that litigation, see Mertz v. Owen et al. and Mertz v. English et al., 191 Okla. 77, 126 P. 2d 720.)

During that litigation, and as a result thereof, Mr. Mertz was removed as trustee and Mr. Bates appointed administrator with the will annexed.

On October 6, 1942, the county court of Muskogee county approved the final account of the administrator and entered a decree of distribution, distributing assets of the estate to Mr. Bates as .trustee.

Mr. Bates, as trustee, filed his annual reports October 7, 1943, October 25, 1944, and March 20, 1946. All such reports were set for hearing, due notice was given to all parties interested, and- after hearing each report they were approved by the district court of Muskogee county.

The 4th Annual Report of the trustee, covering his accounts and doings from January 1, 1946, to December 31, 1946, an application for audit of the trust account, and petition for the approval of the report, including payment of trustee’s compensation in the sum of $12,000, and compensation of the attorney for the trust in the sum of $5,000, were filed in the district court of Muskogee county April 3, 1947.

In the course of the prior litigation above mentioned the will had been construed by the district court of Muskogee county. The court in that case construed the will to the effect that that part of the will providing for the final distribution of the estate after the termination of the trust, by which one-fourth would go as a fund to be used to give loans to deserving young white men of Oklahoma to go through college and one-fourth to go as.a fund to be used to give loans to deserving young white women to go through college, was invalid and void for uncertainty, and on termination of the trust the next of kin of the deceased living at the time of the death of testator would inherit one-half interest in the estate, and that Muskogee Welfare Association, of which the Old Folks Home of Muskogee and the Day Nursery of Muskogee are departments or branches, would take the other half of the remaining assets of the trust.

By the time the 4th Annual Report of the trustee was filed, all the five life beneficiaries named in the will were deceased except Dorothy Evalyn English who had married and her name then was Dorothy Evalyn Swanson.

The court set the matter for hearing for May 28, 1947, and ordered that objections or exceptions thereto, if any, be filed on or before May 24, 1947.

Citations to all interested parties were issued and duly served on all the interested parties except Dorothy Eva-lyn Swanson. She appeared voluntarily on May 19, 1947, and by W. F. Semple, her attorney, filed protest to the ap[131]*131proval of said 4th Annual Report of the trustee. Therein she set up four grounds for her protest:

“(1) That the fee claimed by the trustee for the period covered by the report ($12,000) is excessive and not commensurate with the type, amount and character of the services required to be rendered by the trustee; and that the amount of the fee claimed was not arrived at as a result of any agreement with the protestant, whereas the trust instrument contemplated that the trustee’s compensation shall be such an amount as shall be agreed upon by the trustee and the beneficiaries;
“(2) that the amount claimed as payment by the trustee as attorney’s fees ($5,000) is excessive and unwarranted, in that the estate has not been involved in any litigation, nor has the trustee been required to perform any duties to make it necessary for him to employ an attorney upon a fixed salary or upon any other basis;
“(3) that the amount paid the protestant as sole surviving beneficiary is not a fair and equitable share of the current income to which the beneficiary is entitled;
“(4) that the amount paid for better-ments, improvements, and like purposes, including sums set aside for depreciation, constitute an unfair allocation and apportionment of current income as a result of which the beneficiary is being denied current income to which she is justly entitled.”

The trustee filed a detailed reply to the protest of Dorothy Evalyn Swanson. Therein, by way of plea in bar as to ground No. I of the protest, he alleged that the court had theretofore at a hearing at which protestant was present, and in which she participated, fixed the compensation of the trustee at $1,000 per month “until the further order of the court.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1949 OK 231, 211 P.2d 781, 202 Okla. 128, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 447, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swanson-v-bates-okla-1949.