Edgar v. Fitzpatrick
Decision Date | 27 June 1963 |
Docket Number | No. 8109,8109 |
Citation | 369 S.W.2d 592 |
Parties | William R. EDGAR, Executor of the Estate of Charles Monroe Fitzpatrick, Deceased, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Carl FITZPATRICK, Vesta Fitzpatrick, and June Hitt, Defendants, Marvin Fitzpatrick, Opal Williams, and Jessica Rice, Defendants-Appellants, and Faye Varnum, Guardian of the Person and Estate of Jettie Fitzpatrick, Incompetent, Defendant-Respondent. |
Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
William H. Wyne, Jr., Ray T. Dreher, Clayton, for defendants appellants.
William R. Edgar, J., Ironton, for plaintiff-respondent.
Dearing, Richeson & Weier, Will B. Dearing, Hillsboro, for defendant respondent.
This is a declaratory judgment suit which involves the will and an inter vivos trust executed by Dr. Charles Monroe Fitzpatrick, a resident of Reynolds County, who died on the 13th day of December, 1959, at the age of eighty years.
On July 29, 1957, Dr. Fitzpatrick executed a printed form of instrument entitled 'Revocable Declaration of Trust' as follows:
'REVOCABLE DECLARATION OF TRUST
I, the undersigned declarer, having purchased or declared my intention to purchase certificates of Participation in one or more Series of the Keystone Custodian Funds and/or shares of Keystone Fund of Canada, Ltd., do hereby declare that such certificates or shares, which may be under a Keystone Open Account, are to be in trust upon the following terms:
(1) As trustee, I shall have the right to sell, assign, transfer, invest, reinvest, and otherwise deal in the trust estate or any part thereof, on such terms as I shall deem appropriate; and, as trustee, to receive additional shares of property from whatever source which shall be added to the trust estate.
(2) During my lifetime, the income from the trust estate, including distributions of realized capital gains, or such other payments of income or principal as I shall specify from time to time, shall be payable to me individually, for my own personal use and account.
(3) Upon my death, this trust shall terminate and the then trust assets shall be distributed to the following beneficiaries in the proportions indicated.
Beneficiaries Residence Proportion 5424 Cabanne Ave Mrs. Opal May Williams of St. Louis, Missouri 1/3 -------------------------- ------------------- ---------- Mrs. Jessica Gertrude Rice of Roselle, Missouri 1/3 -------------------------- ------------------- ---------- 2941 Wayne Ave Marvin Lowell Fitzpatrick of Granite City, Ill. 1/3 -------------------------- ------------------- ----------
(4) In the event a named beneficiary shall predecease me, the indicated proportion of the trust assets to which he would have otherwise been entitled upon my death shall upon termination of the trust be distributed among the surviving beneficiaries as their proportionate interests then appear.
(5) In the event all of the named beneficiaries predecease me, the trust shall terminate and the then trust assets shall revert to me free and clear of the terms of this trust.
(6) I, the undersigned declarer, reserve the right to change the beneficiaries and their respective interests or to revoke this trust in whole or in part at any time prior to termination by a written instrument signed by me, which shall be attached hereto.
Executed under seal this 29th day of July, 19 57.
/s/ Ralph W. Yoder Witness
/s/ Charles Monroe Fitzpatrick Declarer
This Trust shall be known as the CHARLES MONROE FITZPATRICK Trust #1. * * *'- The names, addresses, and proportions of the beneficiaries and the addition as to the name of the trust were filled in by typewriter, as was the date.
The showing of circumstances surrounding the execution of this trust is meager. All we know is that it was executed while the doctor was in a hospital in St. Louis. The executor testified that after his appointment Marvin Fitzpatrick, one of the beneficiaries named in the trust, told him, the executor, 'Grandma' was Jettie Fitzpatrick, who was Dr. Fitzpatrick's (second) wife for thirteen years and is now his widow.
On February 13, 1958, Dr. Fitzpatrick executed his last will and testament which, so far as here pertinent, provided first for the payment of his debts; second a devise of certain real estate to his daughter, Jessica Rice; third to a daughter, Opal Williams, certain real estate; fourth to the widow and children of a deceased son $5.00 each, and to another grandson $1,000; fifth and sixth to the son, Marvin Fitzpatrick, certain real estate. Paragraph seven was as follows:
Paragraph eight made Marvin, Opal and Jessica, his son and two daughters, residuary legatees of the will. (These are the same people who were transferees in the transfer of July 29, 1957.) Paragraph nine provided that the beneficiaries should take free of state and federal taxes and that such should be paid out of the general estate.
This will was prepared by an experienced attorney. There is no indication that Dr. Fitzpatrick informed the attorney about the previously executed declaration of trust. After the doctor's death, his executor 'found stock certificates, notes, and so forth, in all parts of the house and office too.' Included in these were the declaration of trust and certificates of stock in the Keystone Custodian Funds issued to Charles Monroe Fitzpatrick, Trustee. The total value of such certificates at the time of death was slightly in excess of $33,000.
The inventory of estate listed real estate of value of $16,190 and personal property at $49,246.42. Separately listed was joint and entirety property of the value of $19,832.98. The evidence shows that some of this jointly owned property was acquired from assets owned by Jettie Fitzpatrick prior to marriage, but we do not know in what amount. The inventory also listed separately the Keystone Fund certificates above mentioned.
The Treasury Department filed a demand against the estate for a total of approximately $120,000 for delinquent income taxes and penalties. After several months' checking of records the executor was successful in getting the claim reduced to $51,000 plus interest. The executor employed an auditor (cost $555). Afterwards, with approval of the probate court, a contract was entered into with attorneys to defend the tax claim with a contingent fee of one-third of whatever amount was saved in reducing the claim. Subsequently, the tax claim was settled for $10,300 including interest; but the estate became liable on its contingent fee contract in the sum of $17,365. (The validity of this liability is not questioned here.) Thus the agents of our government, which both giveth and taketh away, by the insistence upon a claim many times in excess of the amount they eventually, by settlement, agreed to be just, have caused the estate to be greatly depleted.
The executor brought this suit setting up the fact that, in order to pay the amount bequeathed to the widow, Jettie, he may be required to exhaust the residuary estate and all or part of the specific legacies and devises and praying that the court construe the will and determine the manner in which the estate should be distributed, and also praying that the court ascertain and determine whether the Keystone Custodian Fund shares described in the declaration of trust are to be considered as a part of the estate in determining the share to be distributed to the defendant, Jettie; and further that the court determine the order in which legacies and devises shall be abated, and whether the distribution to Jettie shall be made an equitable charge on such legacies and devises and whether the executor has authority to sell the same either to satisfy claims or to make distribution...
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Mitchell's Estate, Matter of, 40865
...equitable cause of action, in which the aggrieved party normally seeks relief in equity rather than at law. E. g., Edgar v. Fitzpatrick, 369 S.W.2d 592, 599 (Mo.App.1963) modified on other grounds, 377 S.W.2d 314 (Mo.1964). Admittedly, today the probate divisions of our circuit courts appea......
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Ingram's Estate, In re, 46728
...to establish a trust in certain mutual fund stock was ineffective (see Edgar v. Fitzpatrick, 377 S.W.2d 314, reversing Edgar v. Fitzpatrick, Mo.App., 369 S.W.2d 592). Appellant Frances asserts Kansas law should apply, pointing out that Pearl, Harold and Frances were all residents of Kansas,......
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Rose v. St. Louis Union Trust Co., 41783
...trusts, where they were a fraud on the widow's marital rights, have long been the subject of equity jurisdiction. (Edgar v. Fitzpatrick (Mo.App.1963), 369 S.W.2d 592, 599, reversed on other grounds 377 S.W.2d 314.) Moreover, that rule was incorporated in the Missouri statute, section 474.15......
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Estate of Froman, Matter of, 16841
...Bernskoetter, 693 S.W.2d at 252; Nelson, 512 S.W.2d at 459, nor in revocable inter vivos trust cases, see, e.g., Edgar v. Fitzpatrick, 369 S.W.2d 592 (Mo.App.1963), modified on other grounds, 377 S.W.2d 314 (Mo. banc 1964). Nevertheless, we believe the decedent in the case before us did ret......