Wheeler v. First Alabama Bank

385 So. 2d 47, 1980 Ala. LEXIS 2893
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJune 27, 1980
DocketNos. 78-800, 78-809 and 78-813
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 385 So. 2d 47 (Wheeler v. First Alabama Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wheeler v. First Alabama Bank, 385 So. 2d 47, 1980 Ala. LEXIS 2893 (Ala. 1980).

Opinion

SHORES, Justice.

On December 30,1976, the First Alabama Bank of Birmingham (the bank) filed in the Circuit Court of the Tenth Judicial Circuit a petition for partial settlement of Ingalls Trusts B, C, D, E, and F. Thereafter, claims were filed on behalf of the sons of one of the primary beneficiaries of those trusts, Elesabeth Ingalls Gillet, and the daughters of the other primary beneficiary, Barbara Ingalls Shook, asserting that the Boykin boys and Shook girls were present beneficiaries of the Ingalls trusts. Those proceedings resulted in the opinion by this Court styled Wheeler v. First Alabama Bank of Birmingham, 364 So.2d 1190 (Ala.1978).

In that case, this Court held that Mrs. Shook and Mrs. Gillet are entitled to receive distributions of principal as well as income of the various trusts and are presently the sole primary beneficiaries of the Ingalls trusts.

Thereafter, the trial court set the matter for hearing with respect to the petitions and requests for partial settlement and approval of the accounting of the trustees of the Ingalls trusts. M. Wayne Wheeler, as guardian ad litem for the unborn descendants of Robert I. Ingalls, Sr., filed an answer which contained a prayer for affirmative relief charging the trustees with breach of fiduciary duty in making discretionary payments to Mrs. Shook and to Mrs. Gillet under Trusts E and F.

By order dated April 23, 1979, the trial court approved the accounting of the trustees including a full and final distribution of Trust C and the discharge of the trustees with respect to Trust C. From that order, Wheeler, as guardian ad litem, and Samuel Marks Boykin, III, appealed. Boykin v. First Alabama Bank, 384 So.2d 10 (Ala.1980).

[49]*49At this stage of the proceeding, Mrs. Shook filed a motion for division of the Ingalls trusts. Richard S. Riley, guardian ad litem for one of the Shook girls, the other having reached majority, filed a motion in opposition to Mrs. Shook’s motion for division as did attorneys for the Boykin boys. Wheeler filed an objection as guardian ad litem for the unborn heirs of Robert I. Ingalls, Sr. Mrs. Gillet then filed a cross-claim and counterclaim asking for termination of her half of the Ingalls Trusts B, D, E, and F.

A hearing was held on the merits of the Shook and Gillet motions, and at the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court entered its order which is appealed from here. That order includes the following findings:

(1) That the court had jurisdiction of the motions of Mrs. Shook and Mrs. Gillet.

(2) That all parties had proper notice and had joined issue on the motions and were presently represented in court and had reasonable opportunity to present evidence.

(3) That Mrs. Shook and Mrs. Gillet are both over the age of thirty-five years and are competent.

(4) That all four trusts contain express language providing authority for both a division of the trusts into two equal shares and, as to the one-half share of each trust allocable to Mrs. Gillet, for a termination of such one-half shares. All four trusts contain language clearly contemplating early termination, possible division and exercise of broad discretion by the then trustees or the then current income beneficiaries (Mrs. Shook and Mrs. Gillet). The applicable test for exercise of discretion was whether the action was in the best interests of the then current income beneficiaries of the trusts as opposed to consideration of the interests of any contingent or unborn beneficiaries.

(5) That there was no evidence of any fraud, bad faith, misbehavior, misconduct, arbitrariness, or abuse of authority on the part of Mrs. Shook, Mrs. Gillet, or the bank.

(6) That all trustees concur in the desire to have the four trusts, B, D, E, and F, divided into two equal shares. With respect to Mrs. Gillet’s request to have a terminating distribution made to her of her own one-half share, such request was not opposed by the remaining trustees and current income beneficiaries.

(7) That the current income beneficiaries (Mrs. Shook and Mrs. Gillet) and trustees, in the light of the ongoing litigation, acted in a reasonable and prudent manner in seeking court approval of the actions sought by the Gillet and Shook motions.

(8) That it was in the best interest of the parties, including both present living beneficiaries and any contingent beneficiaries and the trustees, that the Gillet and Shook motions be granted.

(9) That the court would exercise its equity jurisdiction to appoint successor trustees with respect to the divided trusts, as invoked by Mrs. Shook and Mrs. Gillet.

The court then appointed Mrs. Shook and the bank as trustees of the one-half shares set aside for Mrs. Shook and appointed Mrs. Gillet and the bank for the one-half shares of each trust set aside for Mrs. Gillet.

Each of these trust instruments has been before this Court before. Wheeler v. First Alabama Bank of Birmingham, 364 So.2d 1190 (Ala.1978). Each sets up a trust for the benefit of Elesabeth Ridgely Ingalls and Barbara Gregg Ingalls, whom the Court held in Wheeler to be the primary beneficiaries thereunder. The pertinent provisions of Trusts B, D, E, and F with which we are concerned on this appeal are as follows:

Trust B — “It is contemplated as and when each such beneficiary [Shook and Gillet] shall attain the age of twenty-one years there may properly be distributed to him or her twenty-five per cent of his or her proportionate share of said trust estate, and as and when he or she shall attain the age of twenty-eight years, an additional twenty-five per cent thereof, and as and when he or she shall attain the age of thirty-five years, the remaining fifty per cent thereof, but the Trustees shall not be bound by said schedule of distribution [50]*50and may vary said ages and the percentages distributed. . . .

Trust D- — The provision for distribution is identical to that contained in Trust B above.

Trust E — “(n) The Grantor has considered carefully all of the provisions of the within Trust Indenture with counsel and declares the trust hereby created to be irrevocable; PROVIDED, however, that the adult beneficiaries hereunder at any time entitled to benefits herefrom, or in the event there are no adult beneficiaries, then the legally appointed guardians of any minor beneficiaries, shall have the power, with the consent and approval of the Trustees, to alter or amend this Indenture of Trust, or to terminate same subject to the proviso hereinafter contained, by an instrument in writing signed by them and approved by and delivered to the Trustees; AND PROVIDED FURTHER that no alteration or amendment shall be made which shall result in the withdrawal from the trust of any part of said trust estate except as hereinbefore provided for, or in any change of the enjoyment of the trust property or the proportionate share of any beneficiary thereof. . . . ”

Trust F — The provisions contained in Trust F are identical to those contained in Trust E above.

Both Trusts B and D contain the following language as well:

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Bluebook (online)
385 So. 2d 47, 1980 Ala. LEXIS 2893, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wheeler-v-first-alabama-bank-ala-1980.