Trust Under Agreement of Edward W. Taylor

124 A.3d 334, 2015 Pa. Super. 199, 2015 Pa. Super. LEXIS 530, 2015 WL 5474319
Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided September 18, 2015·No. 2701 EDA 2014·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinions

OPINION BY

LAZARUS, J.:

Appellants, beneficiaries of the Trust Under Agreement of Edward Winslow Taylor, appeal from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Orphans’ Court Division, denying their petition to modify a trust agreement. Upon careful review, we reverse.

The Honorable John W. Herron has set forth the relevant factual and procedural history of this matter as follows:
On February 9, 1928, Edward Winslow Taylor (“Settlor” or “Edward Taylor”) executed an Agreement of Trust, which he amended on April 20, 1928 and September 15, 1930. In the initial trust document, Edward Taylor appointed The Colonial Trust Company, whose principal place of business was Philadelphia, as trustee. In the September 25, 1930 amendment, Mr. Taylor named the Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities (as trustee], noting that it was the successor by merger of The Colonial Trust Company. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (“Wells Fargo”) is the successor in interest of the original trustee [as the result of numerous mergers].
Edward died on February 6, 1939 and his daughter, Anna Taylor Wallace (“Anna”), became co-trustee[,] serving until her death on August 17, 1971. With his final trust amendment, Edward Taylor emphasized that “his dominant purpose” in creating this trust was “to care for his daughter, Anna Taylor Wallace, and her children living on that date, and that the ultimate limitations as to principal and income were a secondary intent — ” Under the terms of the trust, the trustees were directed to distribute the net income to Anna ... “at convenient times” during the year [336] throughout her lifetime. Anna was given the power by will to designate who should receive the remaining net income upon her death. Anna exercised this power of appointment and provided that her eldest child, Frank R. Wallace, Jr.[,] should receive the net income during his lifetime. Upon the death of [Frank, Jr.], the net income was to be distributed among his children, per stirpes. The trust terminates 20 years after the death of the last survivor of the Settlor, Anna ..., Frank R. Wallace and Frank R. Wallace, Jr.[,] or on May 4, 2028. Upon termination, the balance in the trust shall be distributed to each of the individuals who were entitled to receive income.
Upon the death of Anna’s son [Frank, Jr.] on May 4, 2008, Anthony T. Wallace was next in line to serve as Co-Trustee, but he renounced this position effective May 4, 2008. In August 2009, ... Wells Fargo filed a Fourth and Final Account of its administration of the trust. With this accounting, Wells Fargo sought court approval under 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 7740.7(b) to divide the trust into four separate trusts for each of Frank [Jr.’s] four surviving children. The trustee also sought court approval of the appointment of each child to serve as co-trustee with Wells Fargo of his or her own trust. This court approved the division of the trust and the appointment of each of the children as co-trustees by a December 7, 2009 Adjudication. The trust was subsequently divided into four separate trusts, each with an approximate value of $1.8 million.
On September 4, 2013, Elise W. Carr, W. Sewell Wallace and Christopher G. Wallace (“Petitioners”), who are three of the four surviving income beneficiaries of the trust as children of Frank [Jr.], filed a petition to modify the trust agreement. More specifically, they seek to modify paragraph FIFTEENTH of the Trust Agreement because it does not include a provision for the removal and replacement of the corporate trusteed commonly referred to as a “portability clause,”] which, they maintain, is a standard provision in modern trust agreements. In essence, they propose that the trust document be amended so that in the future a corporate trustee could be removed by the beneficiaries without petitioning a court for approval.

Orphans’ Court Opinion, 8/18/14, at 1-3 (footnotes omitted).

No beneficiary of the trust contested the petition, but Wells Fargo opposed the petition and, ultimately, filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings. Petitioners opposed Wells Fargo’s motion and filed their own cross-motion for judgment on the pleadings, which Wells Fargo opposed. Following briefing by the parties, the Orphans’ Court granted Wells Fargo’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and denied Appellants’ petition to modify. This timely appeal was filed by all beneficiaries of the trust, including those who were not petitioners in the original Orphans’ Court action, but nonetheless had no objection to its prayer.

Appellants raise the following issues for our review:

1. Did the Orphans’ Court err when it concluded that the trust modification provisions of 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 7740.1, which were satisfied here, were nonetheless restricted sub silentio by 20 Pa. C.S.A. § 7766, because the proposed modification of the trust involves the future ability to remove a trustee?
2. Did the Orphans’ Court err when, in derogation of well-settled principles of statutory construction, it stretched to override the clear and unambiguous text [337] of the trust modification provisions of 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 7740.1?

Brief of Appellants, at 4.

We begin by noting our scope and standard of review. When the Orphans’ Court arrives at a legal conclusion based on statutory interpretation, our standard of review is de novo and our scope of review is plenary. Estate of Fuller, 87 A.3d 330, 333 (Pa.Super.2014), citing Brown v. Levy, 621 Pa. 1, 73 A.3d 614, 517 (2013).

The interpretation of a statute is a question of law, and our primary objective is to give effect to the intent of the General Assembly. In re: McKinney, 67 A.3d 824, 831 (Pa.Super.2013). In this regard, the plain language of a statute is the foremost indication of legislative intent. Id.

It is only when the words of a statute are not explicit that a court may resort to other considerations in order to ascertain legislative intent. Consistently with the Statutory Construction Act, this Court has repeatedly recognized that rules of construction are to be invoked only when there is an ambiguity.

Cavallini v. Pet City & Supplies, Inc., 848 A.2d 1002, 1006 (Pa.Super.2004) (punctuation and citations omitted). “If the text of the statute is clear and free from all ambiguity, the letter of it is not to be disregarded under the pretext of pursuing its spirit.” In re T.P., 78 A.3d 1166, 1174 (Pa.Super.2013) (internal quotation marks omitted). Finally, to the extent of a conflict between the text of a statute and the comments thereto, the text of the statute controls. See 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1939.1

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

Trust Under Agreement of Edward W. Taylor, 124 A.3d 334, 2015 Pa. Super. 199, 2015 Pa. Super. LEXIS 530, 2015 WL 5474319 (Pa. Ct. App. 2015).

124 A.3d 334 (Trust Under Agreement of Edward W. Taylor) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Trust Agrmt. of E. Taylor Appeal of: Wells Fargo
164 A.3d 1147 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2017)
Estate of: Trust Under Deed of Kulig, D.
131 A.3d 494 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2015)
Trust Under Agreement of Edward W. Taylor
124 A.3d 334 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2015)