Coulson v. Seeley

• Decision Date: 30 December 1931
• Citation: 277 Mass. 559,179 N.E. 171
• Parties: COULSON et al. v. SEELEY et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

277 Mass. 559

179 N.E. 171

COULSON et al.

v.SEELEY et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Essex.

Dec. 30, 1931.

Appeal from Probate Court, Essex County; Harry R. Daw, Judge.

Proceedings by Walter Coulson and others, trustees under the will of Ernest A. Pitman, deceased, for allowance of an account, opposed by Alice E. Seeley, and others. From an adverse decree, trustees Littlefield and Shaw and the executors of the will of Walter Coulson, he having deceased, appeal.

Affirmed.J. A. Donovan, of Lawrence (D. J. Sullivan, of Boston, on the brief), for petitioners.

A. X. Dooley, of Lawrence, for respondents.

CROSBY, J.

The appellants are trustees under the will of Ernest W. Pitman, deceased. Two of the beneficiaries under the will are the appellees.

The seventh to the fifteenth accounts, inclusive, of the appellants were presented to the probate court for allowance. The appellees objected to certain charges made by the trustees for their services, and to attorneys' fees paid by them. The first to the sixth accounts, which had been assented to by the appellees, were allowed when filed, without hearing. These six accounts, at the request of the appellees, were reopened, and considered by the judge of probate in connection with the hearing upon the allowance of the seventh to the fifteenth accounts, and a decree was entered in which the charges made by the trustees for services in the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth accounts and charged to principal in the schedules marked B, amountingin all to $1,725, were disallowed; the charges made by the trustees for services in the seventh to the fifteenth accounts, inclusive, in the amended schedules marked E, were allowed only in the amount of $4,500; and the trustees were charged in schedule C of the fifteenth account with the balance of principal of $135,312.60. It was held that the accountants should be charged in schedule D of the fifteenth account with interest at six per cent. on the amounts disallowed, from the respective dates on which the charges were made to December 31, 1929, the end of the accounting period stated in the fifteenth account, said interest amounting to $1,772.02, and that as so modified the accounts were to be allowed. The trustees Littlefield and Shaw and the executors of the will of Walter Coulson (he having deceased) appealed from the decree.

At the request of the surviving trustees the judge reported the material facts found by him in accordance with G. L. c. 215, § 11, as follows: The will gave the residue of the estate to the trustees for the benefit of the testator's wife and daughter and for other persons. His wife and daughter are the only beneficiaries who appeared to object to the allowance of the accounts. The trustees were appointed February 20, 1913. Their final account as executors shows that they turned over the trust property to themselves, as trustees, on June 12, 1914. On June 29, 1914, they filed an inventory, as trustees, in which the personal property was valued at $102,797.39, and the real property at $20,000. At the hearing on the accounts, the trustees filed a motion that they be allowed to amend the seventh to the fourteenth accounts by charging the annual amount of $250 for services against income, and that the total of $2,000 for eight years be transferred from income to the principal of the estate. This motion was allowed. The appellees appeared to object to the allowance of the accounts, and requested that the first to the sixth accounts be opened for the purpose of considering the charges above referred to. This request was granted against the objections of the accountants.

It was found by the judge that the trustees ‘were all competent men of large experience in their respective vocations'; that among the...