Conley v. Petersen
| Decision Date | 25 May 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 36873,36873 |
| Citation | 25 Ill.2d 271,184 N.E.2d 888 |
| Parties | Eleanor CONLEY et al., Appellants, v. Alan N. PETERSEN et al, Appellees. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Root & Wilder, Morris, and Drach, Howarth & Terrell, Springfield, for appellant.
Black & Black, Morris, and Ashcraft, Olson & Edmonds, Chicago (Rufus D Beach, William H. Alexander, Chicago, and John J. Black, Morris, of counsel), for appellee.
This is an appeal from a decree of the circuit court of Grundy County dismissing, for want of equity, the complaint for partition brought by the appellants. There is a freehold involved.
On September 8, 1944, Caroline Slot, the owner of 160 acres of farm land in Grundy County, conveyed the land to Florence O. Curtis who immediately transferred it by deed in trust to 'Caroline Slot, as trustee, under the provisions of a Trust Agreement dated September 8, 1944 and known as Trust Number One.' Both deeds were recorded in the office of the recorder of Grundy County on September 9, 1944. Trust agreement No. 1 was executed concurrently with the delivery of the deed in trust. Both the deed in trust and the trust agreement were printed forms of the customary type used in the creation of land trusts. See Chicago Title & Trust Co. v. Mercantile Bank, 300 Ill.App. 329, 20 N.E.2d 992.
The trust agreement provided that the persons entitled to the earnings, avails and proceeds of the real estate were Caroline Slot during her natural life, and after her death Neal Peter Petersen during the term of his natural life and after his death Alan Neal Petersen. Neal Peter Petersen was a brother of Caroline Slot and Alan Neal Petersen was the son of Neal Peter.
The trust agreement stated that in the event of the death, resignation, inability or refusal to act of Caroline Slot as trustee, Alan Neal Petersen was to act as successor trustee.
Neal Peter Petersen died on March 12, 1947. On March 19, 1947, Caroline Slot executed a written resignation as trustee and a formal conveyance of the real estate held in the trust, to Alan Petersen 'as successor trustee under the provisions of a trust agreement dated the 8th day of September, A.D. 1944, known as Trust No. One.' The resignation and the deed were delivered to Alan Petersen who thereafter acted as trustee.
Caroline Slot died intestate on June 5, 1951. The appellants, who were nieces of Caroline Slot, filed this complaint in partition. It is their position that the trust arrangement was ineffective; that Caroline Slot died intestate and that as her heirs they have an interest in the real estate held in the trust.
Appellants argue that the trust was invalid because at the time of the conveyance to the trust, Caroline Slot was settlor, trustee and life beneficiary. Such facts do not invalidate the trust. (Farkas v. Williams, 5 Ill.2d 417, 125 N.E.2d 600.) The validity of such a land trust as is involved here is clearly settled in...
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In re Romano
...or administrator as does personal property in Illinois, and not to his heirs at law like all real property. See Conley v. Petersen, 25 Ill.2d 271, 184 N.E.2d 888 (1962). Instead of real estate law governing the transfer of beneficial interests, the Uniform Commercial Code applies. Cf. Levin......
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