Eccles v. R.I. Hosp. Trust Co.

• Decision Date: 27 June 1916
• Citation: 98 A. 129
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: ECCLES v. RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL TRUST CO. et al.

98 A. 129

ECCLES

v. RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL TRUST CO. et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

June 27, 1916.

Case Reserved from Superior Court, New London County; Milton A. Shumway, Judge.

Application by the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company and the United Workers of Norwich, a Connecticut corporation, for the appointment of the United Workers of Norwich as trustee to receive and hold bequests made by the will of John Eccles to the Rock Nook Home for Children. From a decree and order of the court of probate, appointing the United Workers as trustee, William B. Eccles, heir at law of testator, appealed to the superior court, which reserved the case for the advice of the Supreme Court of Errors upon an agreed statement of facts. Superior court advised to enter judgment affirming the decree of the court of probate.

Appeal from the decree and order of the court of probate for the district of Norwich, appointing the United Workers of Norwich, a Connecticut corporation, as trustee to receive and hold certain bequests made by the will of John Eccles to the Rock Nook Home for Children, brought to the superior court for New London county and reserved for the advice of this court upon an agreed statement of facts. John Eccles, late of Norwich, died testate, leaving a considerable estate. By the thirteenth clause of his will he made the following bequests, among others:

"(e) To the Rock Nook Home for Children, a corporation located in said city of Norwich, the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50.000), the principal thereof to be invested by said corporation and the income thereof to be used for its general uses and purposes.

"(f) To the United Workers, a corporation located in the city of Norwich, the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000), the principal thereof to be invested by said corporation and the income thereof to be used for its general uses and purposes. * * *

"(p) All of the rest, residue and remainder of said trust estate in the possession of said trustee or trustees at the time of the death of my said wife, said trustee or trustees shall pay over to said person or persons and in such amounts as my said wife, Nellie Moore Eccles, shall, by her last will and testament, or instrument in the nature of a last will and testament, direct and appoint, and in case my said wife shall leave no such will or instrument, or leaving such will or instrument, shall fail to exercise such power of appointment, then and in that case said trustee or trustees shall convert, transfer and pay over two-thirds of the remainder of said trust estate to said Rock Nook Home for Children, and one-third thereof to said United Workers, discharged of said trust."

The wife of John Eccles died intestate before his decease and the bequests of the residue of the trust fund are now payable. There is not, and never has been, any corporation by the name of Rock Nook Home for Children, or by any name of like sound or meaning, in the state of Connecticut. But there is and has been a home for friendless and destitute children which is and has been commonly known to the public in the town of Norwich by the name of Rock Nook Children's Home. This home is owned by the United Workers of Norwich, a corporation duly organized according to law. It originated in a gift made to the United Workers by Moses Pierce, and confirmed by a deed made on April 4, 1878, conveying to the United Workers the premises formerly occupied by Moses Pierce as his residence—

"to be used and occupied as a home for friendless and destitute children unable to care for themselves and without friends to care properly for them. * * * The said corporation is to decide what children are to be admitted to this home, the length of time they shall remain, and the conditions and regulations to which they shall be subjected."

Since that time the United Workers has maintained and operated the Rock Nook Children's Home in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Pierce deed, and has received various gifts for the benefit of the home, and the same has been practically maintained out of the income from invested funds given for that special purpose and separately accounted for on the books of the United Workers. The management of the home has been entirely in the hands of a standing committee for the Rock Nook Children's Home which, under the constitution of the United Workers, has power to elect its own members subject to the approval of the executive committee. John Eccles, through his contributions, was a member of the corporation of the United Workers, but never held office in it or served on its committees. He was often consulted by individual members of the standing committee for the Rock Nook Children's Home, and consulted with them as to finding places in the home for children who resided in the districts with which he was especially familiar. He was never inside of the home, but took great interest in the work carried on there. He did not know that it was a branch of the work of the United Workers. On the application of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company and the United Workers, the probate court for the district of Norwich appointed the United Workers as trustee to receive and hold the bequests to the Rock Nook Home for Children, described in the will as a corporation located in the town of Norwich. From this decree the brother and sole heir at law of the testator, who received by the will a small pecuniary legacy, appeals.

Hadlai A. Hull, of New London, Charles Welles Gross, of Hartford, and William H. Shields, Jr., and William H. Shields, both of Norwich, for plaintiff. James C. Collins, of Providence, and Arthur M. Brown, of Norwich, for defendant executor. John P. Huntington, of Norwich, for defendant United Workers of Norwich.

BEACH, J. (after stating the facts as above). It is apparent, from the terms of the will interpreted in the light of the agreed statement of surrounding facts, that the testator intended these bequests for the institution known to him as the Rock Nook Home for Children, located in Norwich, in whose work he was greatly interested. This is not seriously disputed.

It is pointed out, however, by the appellant that since this action is an appeal from a decree of probate appointing a trustee, the only questions properly before us are whether, by the terms of these bequests, a trust is created, and, if so, whether the probate court had power, under the circumstances, to...