First Nat. Bank & Trust Co. of Wyo. v. Brimmer, 4125
| Decision Date | 11 January 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 4125,4125 |
| Citation | 504 P.2d 1367 |
| Parties | The FIRST NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY OF WYOMING, a National Banking Association, as Trustee of the M. Valeria Richardson Trust, Appellant (Plaintiff below), v. Clarence A. BRIMMER, Jr., as Attorney General for the State of Wyoming, Appellee (Defendant below). |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Carl L. Lathrop, of Lathrop, Lathrop & Uchner, Cheyenne, for appellant.
Clarence A. Brimmer, pro se; Donald L. Painter, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Cheyenne, for appellee.
Before McINTYRE, C. J., and PARKER, McEWAN and GUTHRIE, JJ.
This action was brought under the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act (§§ 1-1049 to 1-1064, inclusive, W.S.1957) by the First National Bank and Trust Company of Wyoming as trustee of the M. Valeria Richardson Trust. 1
The complaint seeks a determination that the trustee has authority under the trust agreement to provide scholarships for qualified students to attend Laramie County Community College and further seeks a declaration that an additional member of the scholarship committee created by the trust be appointed from Laramie County Community College.
The issue herein, as framed by appellant, is:
'* * * Whether or not the Settlor, M. Valeria Richardson, who died on June 15, 1966, intended by said Trust Agreement (dated April 1, 1963) that scholarships be provided for needy students of Cheyenne and Casper Public Schools who desired to attend Laramie County Community College, which was established in 1968. * * *'
The trial court heard this matter on stipulated and admitted facts and denied the relief prayed for. Appellant appeals from that holding.
M. Valeria Richardson established the trust above referred to with the Stock Grower's National Bank of Cheyenne (predecessor of appellant). After her death the income from this trust was to be used to provide scholarships for needy students of the Cheyenne and Casper public high schools, subject to the provisions of the agreement. Upon Miss Richardson's death the trustee received the bulk of her probate estate. Insofar as it is material to this matter, the trust agreement is as follows:
'1. The net income thereafter received shall be used to provide scholarships to the University of Wyoming and the Casper Community College or their successors. Such scholarships are to be awarded to students at either of the two before mentioned institutions who have graduated from the Public High Schools of Cheyenne, Wyoming, or Casper, Wyoming. Recipients of any scholarship granted hereunder are to be designated on the basis of their individual need, worthiness, ability and aptitude for successfully pursuing a college course of study by the Committee hereinafter named.
'(a) A scholarship may be granted to any one student for only one regular school year at any one time; however, upon annual application and approval of the Committee hereinafter named, one student may be granted scholarships for not to exceed four school years of under-graduate study. A student may be eligible to receive a grant under the terms of this trust during any of his or her four years of under-graduate study whether or not the recipient of a grant hereunder in any previous year.
'(b) Scholarships granted hereunder shall be made in approximately equal amounts to students having graduated from the Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Casper, Wyoming Public High Schools, but may be adjusted from year to year as needs vary between the two cities. There shall not necessarily be an equal division of scholarships between the University of Wyoming and the Casper Community College.
The trust agreement further provides for a five-member committee to award these scholarships, being composed of one representative each from the Cheyenne public schools, Casper public schools, the University of Wyoming, Casper Community College, and the trustee.
Laramie County Community College was established on May 21, 1968. The current representatives of the scholarship committee have executed written consents, joining in the prayer of the complaint which asks that the trust agreement be so construed as to permit the grant of scholarships to needy students to attend Laramie County Community College. In support of this construction appellant asserts:
'1. That the general intent and purpose of the Trust Agreement was to provide scholarships for needy students in Cheyenne and Casper to attend institutions of higher education in their respective areas of Wyoming, and was not limited to attendance at only the University of Wyoming and Casper Community College.
Consideration will be directed first at the general proposition that the purpose of the trust was to provide scholarships for needy students in Cheyenne and Casper to attend institutions of higher learning in these areas and was not limited to the University of Wyoming or Casper Community College. It is to be noted there is no general-purpose statement contained in this trust agreement. In lieu thereof it definitely sets out, however, the following:
'* * * the Trustor desires to establish a trust upon the conditions and for the uses and purposes hereinafter set forth;'
Appellant seeks to justify this change and insists the court has power to do so, citing a statement from Bentley v. Whitney Benefits, 41 Wyo. 11, 281 P. 188, 190, which sets out the rule that such instruments are generally liberally construed to effect the purposes of the donor. It may be observed this is the rule in most jurisdictions.
The words 'a liberal construction' import an attitude of the court in construing a contract or statute to effect the intention of the settlor or the legislature if it is not clearly or properly expressed, but such a liberal construction is never a vehicle for actual violence to the thing construed. Mr. Justice Story once referred to this, in Lawrence v. McCalmont, 2 How. 426, 449, 43 U.S. 426, 449, 11 L.Ed. 326 (1844), in about as simple words as can be found when he said:
'* * * By a liberal interpretation we do not mean that the words should be forced out of their natural meaning, but simply that the words should receive a fair and reasonable interpretation, so as to attain the objects for which the instrument is designed and the purposes to which it is applied. * * *'
The case of Crescent City v. Griffin, 31 Cal.App.2d 133, 87 P.2d 414, 416, defines a liberal interpretation of a statute...
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