Alumnae Ass'n of Newport Hospital School of Nursing v. Nugent

• Decision Date: 27 May 1966
• Docket Number: No. 1-80,1-80
• Citation: 101 R.I. 26,219 A.2d 763
• Parties: ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF the NEWPORT HOSPITAL SCHOOL OF NURSING v. J. Joseph NUGENT, Attorney General. C.Q.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 763

219 A.2d 763

101 R.I. 26

ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION OF the NEWPORT HOSPITAL SCHOOL OF NURSING v. J. Joseph NUGENT, Attorney General.

C.Q. No. 1-80.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

May 27, 1966.

Moore, Virgadamo, Boyle & Lynch, Francis, J. Boyle, Newport, for complainant.

Harold S. Moskol, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

JOSLIN, Justice.

This is a bill in equity brought in the superior court by the Alumnae Association of the Newport Hospital School of Nursing, a nonbusiness corporation of this state, hereinafter sometimes referred to as the 'Alumnae Association,' for the construction of and instructions in relation to the will of Adelene A. Tuck, late of the town of Middletown who died on September 1, 1959. The attorney general of the state is the only respondent, having been named conformably to G.L.1956, § 18-9-5, which requires, insofar as here relevant, that he be notified as an interested party of all judicial proceedings affecting a trustee who holds property in trust for educational purposes. When the cause was ready for hearing for final decree it was, pursuant to § 9-24-28, certified to this court for determination.

The provision of the will which is the subject of complainant's inquiries is clause Fourteenth ¹ wherein the testatrix made a resdiduary gift of approximately $60,000 'to the Newport Hospital Nurses Alumni Association to be used to provide scholarships for persons who desire to make nursing their vocation and who have the intention and purpose to become good bedside nurses.' The complainant's primary concern is with obtaining approval for a scheme it has framed for the administration of the trust.

At the threshold, however, and before reaching the specific questions posed, we raise sua sponte the problem created by the testatrix' having identified the beneficiary in her will as the 'Newport Hospital Nurses Alumni Association' rather than as the 'Alumnae Association of the Newport Hospital School of Nursing' which is complainant's correct corporate designation. The parties gave no heed in their presentation of the case to us of the misnomer nor apparently did the executors when they distributed the legacy to the corporate association. The lack of concern as to identity probably stems not only from an awareness that the testatrix, a graduate of the Newport Hospital School of Nursing, was a founder and the first president of the Alumnae Association but in addition from the fact that there is no other organization in Newport county having a name similar to that of complainant. For purposes of this proceeding, therefore, we assume that the testatrix intended to leave a one-third interest in her residuary estate to the Alumnae Association, an organization with which she had long been associated and in whose affairs she had during her lifetime displayed a keen and lively interest. In these circumstances her inaccuracy in designating her beneficiary as 'the Newport Hospital Nurses Alumni Association' is immaterial the true identity of the object of her benefaction being otherwise evident. First Baptist Church in Exeter v. Soban, 77 R.I. 115, 73 A.2d 772; Warwick Central Baptist Soc'y v. Hohler, 72 R.I. 445, 53 A.2d 494; Deserving Poor Boys Priesthood Ass'n v. Rhode Island Hospital Trust Co., 53 R.I. 310, 166 A. 359.

We turn now to the questions asked by complainant. It requests that we construe the will so as to permit the application of the principal of the fund and the income derived therefrom for awards of scholarships for graduate studies to such alumnae of the Newport Hospital School of Nursing as may from time to time be selected by a scholarship committee to be appointed by its president.

The testamentary intention is clear and certain. It remains only to determine whether the plan of administration proposed by complainant fits the design provided by the testatrix in her will. We look to the record. It discloses that many of the approximately twenty-five students who each year complete the three-year course of studies at the Newport Hospital School of Nursing fulfill the criteria delineated by the testatrix-they have the desire to make nursing their profession and they intend to become good bedside nurses. Likewise it reveals that the complexities of modern-day medicine have so enlarged the scope of the knowledge a nurse must have to attain proficiency in her profession that advanced training at the postgraduate level has become desirable. Such training not only makes the recipient professionally more competent but in...