Walker Bank & Trust Co. v. Goehring

95 P.2d 502, 98 Utah 288
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 10, 1939
DocketNo. 6080
StatusPublished

This text of 95 P.2d 502 (Walker Bank & Trust Co. v. Goehring) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walker Bank & Trust Co. v. Goehring, 95 P.2d 502, 98 Utah 288 (Utah 1939).

Opinion

WOLFE, Justice.

Frank F. Fisk died at Price, Utah, on the 21st day of July, 1934, leaving what purported to be a last will and testament, dated the 4th day of June, 1930. He left surviving him one child, Russell T. Y. Fisk, who was totally disabled following military service in the World War. Deceased’s only other relatives were cousins, nieces, nephews, and legal heirs of a deceased cousin who were named as beneficiaries in the will.

The- purported will was admitted to probate on August 17, 1934, and Walker Bank & Trust Company and a cousin, Lisle A. Smith, were appointed executors. Under the terms of said will, Russell T. Y. Fisk was to receive the residuary estate, with Walker Bank & Trust Company named as trustee to administer the same.

Russell T. Y. Fisk, only child and. heir and residuary de-visee and legatee, instituted contest proceedings attacking the validity of said will on the grounds of the testamentary incapacity of testator and the uncertainty and repugnancy of certain of its provisions.

Prior to the hearing on said contest, the beneficiaries under the will on July 11,1935, entered into what was denominated a “Stipulation, Agreement and Conveyance”, hereinafter called stipulation, wherein the parties agreed that the Walker Bank & Trust Company, named in the will as both executor and as trustee with certain trust duties to perform, should administer the trust estate as trustee under the stipulation. After the stipulation was executed the contest was [290]*290heard and upon evidence offered and received the will was set aside on the grounds that the testator was incompetent. The trust set up in the stipulation for the benefit of Russell Fisk was quite different in its terms from that set up by the will.

The question of the good faith of this contest and the resultant stipulation are not brought into question. We assume that the trial court in hearing the contest protected the rights of the testator to will his property in trust limited to certain uses which the will set out even though all the beneficiaries agreed to a trust limited to other uses. On September 21, 1935, the will was set aside; on October 19, 1935, on application of Russell Fisk, the Walker Bank & Trust Company was appointed administrator de bonis non. The executors named in the will which had been admitted to probate on August 17, 1934, had carried on administration of the estate up to the time the will was set aside. On this same October 19, 1935, the accounts of the executors were approved and all property was ordered to be turned over to the administrator de bonis non. On November 29, 1935, the administrator de bonis non petitioned for partial distribution and at that time numerous non-liquid assets were turned over to the trustee and certain cash on hand distributed to the beneficiaries according to certain provisions in the stipulation. The administrator de bonis non evidently continued to administer some of the assets for a final decree of distribution of the property from its hands was not signed until September 19, 1936. The administrator de bonis non was not by said order discharged and so far as the record shows is not yet discharged. In order intelligently to follow the opinion, the dates of the decrees must be kept in mind or referred to as needed.

On October 26, 1936, the trustee filed in probate its first account in connection with which it asked for instructions as to specific matters necessary properly to administer the trust because of divergent claims respecting the interpretation of the stipulation. This request for instructions was [291]*291joined in by all the beneficiaries. On September 11, 1987, a second report of the trustee with accounts attached for an additional period was filed, again asking for instructions. On June 18, 1938, the court handed down its decree approving the first account and adjudicating the questions submitted in the petition for instructions. This appeal is from that adjudication. This completes the chronology. It should be noted that Walker Bank & Trust Co., Trustee, was named as a respondent in this matter, but, in effect, it is neutral. George Fisk, Adam Boyer, Gladys Aldrich, Reba Dangler, Minnie Smurr, and Lisle A. Smith are referred to hereafter in the opinion as respondents and Walker Bank & Trust Co. is referred to by name or as trustee.

The stipulation provided in general that certain named legatees of the will, the respondents herein, should be paid each a maximum amount set opposite his name, subject to pro rata deductions for Federal Estate, Federal Gift, and Utah Inheritance Taxes. Russell Fisk, who was also to take his pro rata share, was given the residue. The shares of all were to be paid out of moneys obtained from the liquidation of the estate which consisted of real estate, notes, stocks, bonds and other personal property appraised at $678,213.17. The respondents claim that in addition to the net amount realized from the liquidation of the property represented by the $678-213.17 appraisal, the “accumulations” consisting of “interest” on “negotiable instruments and bonds, from rents of real property and sales of negotiable instruments, stocks and bonds over the appraised value of said negotiable instruments and bonds as approved by this court” as may be realized and accumulate in the hands of the trustee are also chargeable with the payment of the amounts which the respondents are entitled to up to the máximums named in the stipulation. The appellants, Viola E. Goehring, Extrix. of the Estate of Russell Fisk, G. E. M. Pratt, and B. W. Dalton, claim that all the “accretions and accumulations of every kind and nature over and above the appraised value” whether such “accretions or accumulations” occurred during the [292]*292administration of the estate by the executors, or by the administrator de bonis non, or occurred after the trust estate was in the hands of the trustee, were to go,, by the stipulation, to Russell Fisk and hence to his estate. The respondents contend that the decree of partial distribution of November 29,1935, and the final decree of distribution of September 19, 1936, distributing cash in the hands of the administrator de bonis non, judicially construed the stipulation and that appellants are now precluded from contending otherwise because such decrees cannot be collaterally attacked. We think it unnecessary, for reasons which will hereafter appear, to determine the correctness of that contention.

It is admitted by respondents that the stipulation gave to Russell Fisk all the accumulations resulting during the administration of the executors of the will and of the administrator de bonis non. The issue arises over the question whether, in addition, it gives him the accruals and accumulations which resulted or may result during the administration of the trust or whether these latter accumulations should merge with the corpus in the hands of the trustee for the purpose of paying, up to the maximum, less the pro rata share of cash for taxes, etc., the sums named in the stipulation as payable to the respondents. Since Russell Fisk, under the stipulation, will receive all of the residue of the trust estate after the respondents’ shares are paid, the question will be academic unless the losses from liquidation of all the corpus cut down the latter to such extent that the net sums payable to the respondents cannot be paid out of it. In such case, the accruals under trust administration would serve to augment the corpus so as to insure that all, or a greater share, of the maximum sums which the respondents claim could be paid.

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95 P.2d 502, 98 Utah 288, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walker-bank-trust-co-v-goehring-utah-1939.