Whittredge v. Sweetser

• Decision Date: 11 September 1905
• Citation: 75 N.E. 222,189 Mass. 45
• Parties: WHITTREDGE v. SWEETSER et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

189 Mass. 45

75 N.E. 222

WHITTREDGE v. SWEETSER et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

September 11, 1905

COUNSEL

Hollis

R Bailey and George W. Mathews, for defendant John C. Hammond.

W. B H. Dowse, Warren O. Kyle, and Fred Joy, for assignees in bankruptcy of Elbridge L. Sweetser.

OPINION

LORING, J.

This is a bill for instructions brought by the plaintiff as the present trustee of certain property held in trust under item 8 of the will of Solon O. Richardson. The case was reserved for the consideration of this court on an agreed statement of facts. From this statement it appears that Solon died in 1873, and by his last will and testament, which was duly allowed, bequeathed $35,000 on the following trusts: The income to be paid to his three sisters for life, namely, Mary A. Sweetser, Martha Hutchinson, and Louisa Richardson; and 'at the decease of my said sisters, or either of them, my will is that the share belonging to the deceased sister shall revert to her children, to be shared by them each and each alike. If either of my said sisters shall die childless, the income belonging to her I direct shall revert to the said sisters surviving, to be shared equally between them. At the decease of all my three said sisters, I direct that the fund from which they have derived an income from my property be divided equally between the children of my said sisters, and I direct my executors to pay to them each their respective part, the same to be the property of the children of my said sisters forever.' The three life tenants survived the testator. Louisa never had any child; Martha Hutchinson had one child, now the wife of the plaintiff; and Mary A. Sweetser had one child, a son, Elbridge L. Sweetser. Both of these children, Mrs Whittredge and Elbridge L. Sweetser, were born in the lifetime of the testator. Mary A. Sweetser survived her sisters, and died December 15, 1900, leaving her son and her niece her surviving. On February 1, 1901, this bill was brought to find out who was entitled now to receive Elbridge L. Sweetser's half of the fund. This half is claimed by assignees in bankruptcy of said Elbridge under a petition filed in 1878. It is also claimed by one John C. Hammond, who now owns a judgment rendered in February, 1896, in favor of a creditor of Elbridge, founded on five notes dated in 1881. Hammond is also the present holder under one of two creditors to whom an assignment was made in October, 1885, to secure two debts incurred after this bankruptcy. No other claimants have appeared before us.

The defendant Hammond admits that when the testator died Elbridge had either a vested remainder in one-half of the trust fund of $35,000, subject to the life estates created by this item of the will, and subject to the class being opened on the birth of a further child or children of the life tenants, or a vested interest in a contingent remainder, and that his interest vested in his assignees in bankruptcy. His contention, however, is that the assignees are barred by Rev St. U.S. § 5057. The title of the assignees in bankruptcy became complete on the assignment to them of this interest in remainder. In this commonwealth notice to the trustees is not necessary to complete the title of an assignee of an interest in the...