Attorney Gen. v. Clark

• Decision Date: 02 December 1896
• Citation: 45 N.E. 183,167 Mass. 201
• Parties: ATTORNEY GENERAL v. CLARK et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

167 Mass. 201

45 N.E. 183

ATTORNEY GENERAL

v.CLARK et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

Dec. 2, 1896.

Appeal from supreme judicial court, Suffolk county.

Information by the attorney general, on the relation of Andrew B. Lattimore and others, trustees of the Twelfth Baptist Church, against William H. Clark and others, to compel defendants to turn over to relators certain books and records. A demurrer to the information was sustained, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.J.E. Abbott, for appellant.

H.G. Allen, for appellees.

BARKER, J.

While equity will enforce a valid trust, charitable or otherwise, it does not do so upon an information filed by the attorney general, if the trust is in effect a private one, nor unless there appear to be “some benefit to be conferred upon, or duty to be performed towards, either the public at large or some part thereof, or an indefinite class of persons.” Society v. Crocker, 119 Mass. 1, 23. When the trust is for the whole public, or for some part of the public, or for an indefinite class of persons, the attorney general is evidently the proper officer to bring the case before the court, and to represent and act for the public, or for the persons who, because they constitute an indefinite class, cannot themselves appear in person or constitute an attorney. Trusts connected with religious work have been not infrequently considered by this court, and in the case cited it was held that, while “gifts for the erection of a house for public worship, or for the use of the ministry, may constitute a public charity, if there is no definite body, for whose use the gift was intended, capable of receiving, holding, and using it in the manner intended, *** when there is a body, or a definite number of persons, ascertained or ascertainable, clearly pointed out, by the terms of the gift, to receive, control, and enjoy its benefits, it is not a public charity, however carefully and exclusively the trust may be restricted to religious uses alone.” These principles are decisive of the present case upon the demurrer. It appears by the amended information that the Twelfth Baptist Church is an unincorporated religious society, established in Boston for the purpose of maintaining religious worship in accordance with the faith and usages of the Baptist denomination,and that the society has trustees, who hold the title to the real estate occupied by the society, and who are the proper custodians of all its...