Hayward v. Blake

• Citation: 247 Mass. 430,142 N.E. 52
• Parties: HAYWARD v. BLAKE et al.
• Decision Date: 08 January 1924
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

247 Mass. 430

142 N.E. 52

HAYWARD

v.BLAKE et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex.

Jan. 8, 1924.

Appeal from Probate Court, Middlesex County; L. E. Chamberlain, Judge.

Petition in equity by George B. Hayward, special administrator of the estate of Jennie L. Nichols, deceased, against Henry N. Blake, trustee for the deceased under the will of Charles E. Clark, and others, in which the executrix of deceased intervened. From the decree, defendants appeal. Modified and affirmed.

H. N. Blake, for appellants Clark and Blake.

George B. Hayward, of Boston, for appellee.

CARROLL, J.

This is a petition in equity by the special administrator of the estate of Jennie L. Nichols, the executrix of her will subsequently intervening as plaintiff, against Henry N. Blake, trustee for Jennie L. Nichols under the will of Charles E. Clark, and against other respondents, praying for a determination of the interest of the petitioner in certain mortgage interest and stock dividends, received by Blake as trustee.

Blake held as trustee a note, secured by mortgage on real estate in Massachusetts, and shares of stock of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company and ‘Western Union Telegraph & Telephone Company.’ Jennie L. Nichols died July 6, 1922. In the probate court it was decreed that the trustee pay to the plaintiff the sum of $26.13, that being the proportionate share of the interest on the mortgage note from January 15, 1922, to July 6, 1922; a dividend of $245, declared June 13, 1922, and payable July 15, 1922, on the shares of stock of the ‘Western Union Telegraph & Telephone Company,’ and a dividend of $119.25 of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, declared May 16, 1922, payable July 15, 1922, to stockholders of record June 20, 1922. From this decree the defendants appealed.

A trustee was originally appointed under an agreement of compromise, approved by the probate court, by which the trustee was to pay to Mrs. Nichols ‘the net income thereof’ of the trust fund in question. The predecessor of Blake as trustee was appointed under a decree providing that during her life he was to ‘hold all personal property to the income of which said Jennie L. Nichols may be entitled.’ Blake, on the resignation of his predecessor, petitioned to be appointed trustee, alleging that the beneficiary was entitled during her lifetime to a certain portion of the estate, and that the decree appointing him, after referring to the circumstance that she was entitled to the income during her life, directed ‘that said petitioner be appointed trustee as aforesaid.’

[1] The duty of the trustee was to pay to Jennie L. Nichols during her life the income of the trust fund. The interest on the mortgage note was apportioned properly from the date of the last payment of interest to the date of her death. ‘A person entitled to * * * interest or income, or his representative, shall have the same apportioned if his right or estate therein terminates between the days upon which it is payable, unless otherwise provided in the will or instrument by which it was created.’ G. L. c. 197, § 27. The beneficiary's life estate terminated between the days upon which the interest was payable, and her executrix was entitled to receive the interest from January 15, 1922, to July 6, the date of her death. Old Colony Trust Co. v. Sargent, 235 Mass. 298, 126 N. E. 526. See Dexter v. Phillips, 121 Mass. 178, 188, 189,23 Am. Rep. 261;Adams v. Adams, 139 Mass. 449, 1 N. E. 746;Stone v. Bradlee, 183 Mass. 165, 172, 66 N. E. 708.

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