First Nat. Bank of Southwestern Ohio v. Miami University

• Decision Date: 02 June 1997
• Docket Number: CA96-03-048,Nos. CA96-03-047,s. CA96-03-047
• Parties: FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF SOUTHWESTERN OHIO, Exr., Appellee, v. MIAMI UNIVERSITY et al., Appellees; Havighurst et al., Appellants. *
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals

Page 170

121 Ohio App.3d 170

699 N.E.2d 523

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF SOUTHWESTERN OHIO, Exr., Appellee, v. MIAMI UNIVERSITY et al., Appellees; Havighurst et al., Appellants. ^*

Nos. CA96-03-047, CA96-03-048.

Court of Appeals of Ohio,

Twelfth District, Butler County.

Decided June 2, 1997.

James Robinson, Oxford, for appellee.

James E. Michael, Hamilton, for appellee Miami University.

Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General, and Cheryl R. Hacker, Assistant Attorney General, Columbus, for appellee Betty D. Montgomery.

Armin Frank, Loveland, for appellants.

PER CURIAM.

Defendants-appellants, Alan W. Havighurst and Douglas A. Havighurst, have taken the instant appeals from the entry of a declaratory judgment favorable to plaintiff-appellee, First National Bank of Southwestern Ohio ("FNB"), in its capacity as the executor for the estate of Walter E. Havighurst. ¹ Appellants present on appeal three assignments of error, in which they challenge the balance struck by the probate court in weighing the evidence before it, the denial of their demands for a jury trial, and various evidentiary rulings. Finding no merit to any aspect of the challenges advanced on appeal, we affirm the judgment of the court below.

The parties' dispute centers on a charitable trust created by the last will and testament of FNB's decedent, Walter E. Havighurst ("testator"). The testator executed the will creating the trust on September 7, 1988, and amended it by a codicil dated October 11, 1989. The testator died on February 3, 1994, and, on February 11 of the same year, the will was admitted to probate.

The will made specific bequests of money and/or property to the testator's heirs, including the appellants, and to Miami University, where the testator had served as a professor until his retirement. The will then bequeathed the balance of the testator's estate to FNB, in trust, and directed that it "be used * * * to promote and fund educational projects through the Miami University International Center * * * for building cross-cultural understanding between the peoples of the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."

On October 20, 1994, FNB, as executor of the testator's estate, filed an action in the Probate Division of the Butler County Court of Common Pleas, seeking declaratory relief regarding the viability of the trust in the wake of the December 1991 dissolution of the USSR. Specifically, FNB sought declarations that the trust created no reversionary interest in the testator's heirs; that the will creating the trust authorized FNB, as trustee, to fund "programs related to the [USSR] as it previously existed * * * [and] programs related to the people and institutions previously or currently located within the areas formerly occupied by the [USSR]"; and that the trust was to be funded and executed according to its terms.

Appellants each responded to FNB's complaint with an answer and a counterclaim for declaratory relief. In their counterclaims, as subsequently amended, appellants sought declarations that the political, economic and social conditions of the USSR at the time that the will was executed differed significantly from the conditions at the time that the complaint was filed; that the trust cannot be carried out in accordance with its terms; that Miami University's conduct and its status as an instrumentality of the state of Ohio precludes the preservation of the trust under any equitable doctrine; that the proposed gift by trust has thus failed; and that the residuary estate thus constitutes intestate property that must pass pursuant to R.C. 2105.06, the statute of descent and distribution. Douglas Havighurst, in his counterclaim, additionally and in the alternative sought the implementation of a plan that would require the participation of the testator's heirs and would promote "conflict management[;] * * * the reduction of tribal, racial, and ethnic aggression; and [the] management of nuclear materials."

The matter was tried to the probate court, and on December 15, 1995, the court entered its opinion and judgment entry of declaratory judgment, in which it construed the will to preserve the trust. On February 20, 1996, the court, upon appellants' motions, issued its amended entry of declaratory judgment and findings of fact and conclusions of law, and these appeals ensued.

I

In their first assignment of error, appellants contend that the probate court erred in declining to declare that the testator's attempted gift in trust had failed and, upon such declaration, to distribute the trust assets to the heirs at law, when the dissolution of the USSR necessitated the termination of the trust. Appellants thus, in effect, assail the dismissal of their amended counterclaims and, in essence, challenge the balance struck by the probate court in weighing the evidence adduced at trial. We find no merit to this challenge.

A probate court, in a declaratory judgment action, is authorized to construe a will and to declare the rights and legal relations of persons interested in the administration of an estate or a trust. See R.C. 2101.24(A)(1)(k), 2721.03 and 2721.05(C). The court below, in its amended entry of declaratory judgment, declared that the trust created by the testator's will was a charitable trust and that the will created no reversionary interest in the testator's heirs. The court construed the will's use of the term "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" to also mean the "former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" and construed the will's use of the term "Soviet Union" to also mean the "former Soviet Union." Finally, the court ordered that the trust be "fully funded and carried out in accordance with its terms."

We note at the outset that, in the opinion accompanying the initial entry of declaratory judgment, entered on December 15, 1995, the probate court, having construed the terms "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" and "Soviet Union" to preserve the trust, concluded that its application of the doctrines of cy pres and deviation would have yielded the same result. The court's amended entry of declaratory judgment and its findings of fact and conclusions of law, entered on February 20, 1996, superseded the court's December 1995 opinion and entry of judgment, yet manifested the purpose expressed by the court in its superseded opinion to construe the will to uphold the trust without resort to the doctrines of cy pres or deviation. We agree that any discussion of the doctrines would be superfluous. Therefore, we do not reach those aspects of appellants' challenge on appeal that are predicated upon the probate court's alleged misapplication of the doctrines.

Turning then to the merits of appellants' first assignment of error, we note that a court's sole purpose in construing a will is to ascertain and effectuate the intention of the testator. The court must discern the testator's intention from the language of the will. Carr v. Stradley (1977), 52 Ohio St.2d 220, 6 O.O.3d 469, 371 N.E.2d 540, paragraph one of the syllabus; Townsend's Exrs. v. Townsend (1874), 25 Ohio St. 477, paragraphs one and two of the syllabus. However, when the language of the will creates doubt as to its meaning, the court may consider extrinsic evidence to aid in its determination of the testator's intention. Oliver v. Bank One, Dayton, N.A. (1991), 60 Ohio St.3d 32, 573 N.E.2d 55, paragraph one of the syllabus (following Sandy v. Mouhot [1982], 1 Ohio St.3d 143, 145, 1 OBR 178, 180, 438 N.E.2d 117, 118).

The court below preserved the trust by construing the terms "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" and "Soviet Union" to also mean the "former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" and the "former Soviet Union." The court's construction of these terms was based upon its conclusions that the testator's "primary purpose" in creating the trust was "educational"; that "[t]he testator intended the terms 'Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,' 'Soviet Union,' and 'Soviet' to primary be [sic] descriptive of the 'peoples' that inhabited that area of the world"; and that the testator did not intend that the continued existence of the USSR as a "political entity" be an "integral factor in * * * the creation and administration of the [trust]." These conclusions were, in turn, based upon the court's reading of the text of the will creating the trust and upon testimony adduced at trial that the word "peoples," as used in the will, could be construed to mean the "ethnic * * *, cultural * * *, linguistic, [and] religious communities" within a "geographical area."

Appellants' counterclaims were predicated upon the assertion that the testator's aim in creating the trust was to ease Cold War tensions between the United States and the USSR and that, with the demise of the USSR and the concomitant end of the nuclear threat that was the Cold War's most salient feature, the trust has failed in its essential purpose. As we noted above, the probate court found the language of the will and the evidence adduced at trial to bespeak a purpose on the part of the testator in creating the trust that was educational rather than political, and more personal than institutional. Furthermore, the evidence was uncontroverted that the region still possesses a nuclear capacity that, with the demise of the USSR as a political entity and the consequent destabilization of the region, continues to pose a threat to the United States.

The Ohio Supreme Court in C.E. Morris Co. v. Foley Constr. Co. (1978), 54 Ohio St.2d 279, 8 O.O.3d 261, 376 N.E.2d 578, syllabus, held that "[j]udgments supported by some competent, credible evidence going to all the essential elements of the case will not be reversed by a reviewing court as being against the manifest weight of the evidence." Our review of the record of the proceedings below discloses that the probate court had before it competent and credible evidence to support its entry of declaratory judgment...