Union Savings Bank & Trust Co. v. Alter

103 Ohio St. (N.S.) 188
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 12, 1921
DocketNos. 16835 and 16836
StatusPublished

This text of 103 Ohio St. (N.S.) 188 (Union Savings Bank & Trust Co. v. Alter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Union Savings Bank & Trust Co. v. Alter, 103 Ohio St. (N.S.) 188 (Ohio 1921).

Opinions

Robinson, J.

The questions in this cause propounded by the various parties hereto are:

I. Did Franklin Alter die intestate as to that part of his estate which he directed his trustees to ; pay to Henry T. Alter and his heirs at the expiration of ten years. after the decease of testator, Henry T. Alter having died without issue prior to the death of the testator?

[199]*199II. Did the estate bequeathed to the trustees in' trust for the children of Franklin Alter vest in the children at .the death of Franklin Alter?

III. Has the court the power to increase the annual allowance made by the testator to each of his children, because of the fact that the circumstances of certain of such children and general conditions have changed since the death of testator ?

IV. Are the trustees exceeding their power by the contemplated sale of the stock of the estate in The American Tool Works Company of Ohio?

In view of the conclusion we have reached in considering question No. II, a discussion of question Number I becomes unnecessary, other than to state that the interest of the children, who survived the testator, in the undivided one-eighth part devised and bequeathed to Henry T. Alter, and his heirs, is not different from their interest in the entire estate.

Coming now to a consideration of question No. II, from a reading of thp will it seems apparent that the testator intended to secure to each of his children an annual income for the ten years immediately following his decease, and that such income should not be by them in any way anticipated or alienated; hence the provision “My Trustees shall accept no order on said annual payments from any of my said children, nor shall said annual payments or any part thereof be in any way pledged or hy-pothecated by any of my said children.”

What impelled the testator to make provision for the annual income and to set it about with restrictions as to anticipation and alienation, we need not [200]*200inquire. It is sufficient that we are able to gather from the plain provisions of the will such intention.

Having thus demonstrated his purpose to prevent the alienation and anticipation of the annual income, and having recognized the advisability of so restricting the enjoyment of this annual income, it is significant that with reference to the principal and the larger bequest, he made no such provision or restriction. It is also significant that with reference to the annual income he provided “In the event of the death of any particular child of mine before or after my death, leaving issue, my Trustees shall pay annually to its issue, share and share alike, but per stirpes, the same amount or portion of the net income of my estate as its parent would have received if living,” fand further provided “In the event of the death of any child * * * leaving no issue * * * the income which would have been or which was theretofore payable to such child * * * shall go in augmentation and become a part of the principal of my estate.” But when he came to the distribution of the principal of the trust estate he disposed of it one-eighth part thereof to- each of his children, by name, “and 'his heirs.” Having with reference to the annual income clearly manifested an intention that such incomes should go to his children and their respective issue, as distinguished from their heirs, and in the absence of issue that it be suspended from its course of descent and be applied towards the augmentation of the prin-' cipal, thus demonstrating that he understood the distinction between issue and heir, he to our minds conclusively indicated that when he used the words- [201]*201“and his heirs” or the words “and her heirs” he used them in their technical sense. From which we are forced to the conclusion that in the use of the words “one-eighth part thereof to my son, Franklin Alter, and his heirs,” and similar words as to the other children, the testator did not by the use of the words “and his heirs” intend to indicate a new class of persons, but rather intended to indicate a bequest to Franklin Alter, absolute, subject only to the trust, and that therefore the children of the testator who survived him took a vested estate in the entire trust estate, subject to the provisions of the trust as to annuity, control and possession.

We come now to the consideration of question Number III, which, it may be said in passing, is the question that influenced this court to accept jurisdiction of this cause.

While it is not controlling in the determination of the legal question here involved, it seems appropriate to refer to the facts that testator lived some seven years after the execution of his last will and testament; that his income had increased prior to his death, and especially so for the year immediately prior thereto; that George T. Alter, long prior to the death of testator, had developed the disease from which he is now suffering, and that the testator had advanced to him some $35,000 more than he had advanced to any other of the children, which would indicate that he had knowledge of his financial needs and probably of his. earning capacity ; and that notwithstanding such knowledge he required that out of the first annuity of $2,500 to George $2,000 should be retained as part payment [202]*202upon such advancement. It also seems appropriate to refer to the facts that the son Franklin Alter had married prior to the death of the testator, had two children, and at that time was not earning to exceed $1,500 per year; that for the seven years between the execution of the will and his decease, notwithstanding the changing circumstances of his children and the increase of his estate, the testator did not see fit to revise his bequest to any of them.

Assuming, as we are bound to assume, that the will speaks from the date of the death of the testator, rather than from the date of the execution of the will, the circumstances of these two legatees,_ then and now, the conditions under which they lived then and live now, are not greatly different; perhaps not more' different than are the circumstances and conditions of a considerable proportion of legatees in general, whose right of possession and control is deferred.

If the courts are to enter the field of distributing estates in such manner as will in their judgment accomplish the most beneficial results to the legatees, and are to distribute the bounties of the testator according to the needs of the beneficiary arid the sense of equity and justice of the court, rather than according to the intention of the testator, to what purpose is the right conferred by statute upon every person of full ag6, sound mind and memory, and not under restraint, to give, and bequeath his property by last will and testament ?

A testator when he comes to distribute his bounty by. last, will and testament takes into consideration his affection for and obligation to the beneficiary, [203]*203the beneficiary’s needs, ability, capacity, and many other things of which he has peculiar knowledge, and it is because of such consideration that he makes a last will and testament at all.

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Bluebook (online)
103 Ohio St. (N.S.) 188, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/union-savings-bank-trust-co-v-alter-ohio-1921.