Holmes v. Welch

• Decision Date: 29 May 1943
• Citation: 314 Mass. 106,49 N.E.2d 461
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
• Parties: EUNICE A. HOLMES & others v. JOHN H. WELCH & others, trustees, & others.

314 Mass. 106

49 N.E.2d 461

EUNICE A. HOLMES & others v. JOHN H. WELCH & others, trustees, & others.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Worcester.

May 29, 1943

February 5, 1941.

Present: FIELD, C.

J., LUMMUS, QUA COX, & RONAN, JJ.

Trust, Express trust: construction; Charitable trust; Resulting trust Discretionary powers of trustee. Devise and Legacy Charitable trust, Construction requiring intestacy. Equity Jurisdiction, Trust, Remedy at law. Equity Pleading and Practice, Bill, Parties. Probate Court, Petition, Parties.

A resulting trust for the heirs or next of kin of the testator by partial intestacy might arise under a will if the property of a residuary trust were not exhausted in carrying out directions to the trustee to purchase a suitable lot of land, erect thereon a suitable building for a community house for townspeople and provide a fund for its maintenance, and, if it would be for the best interests of the townspeople and more fully carry out the testator's wishes, to transfer "said property" to the control of a certain charitable association; and therefore heirs or next of kin of the testator had a standing to file a petition in equity in the Probate Court on the alleged grounds that the property in the hands of the trustee was larger than was required to perform the trust and that they were entitled to the surplus.

No adequate and complete remedy on the probate side of the Probate Court was available to the heirs at law and next of kin of a testator to determine whether a residuary trust fund established by the will was larger than needed to carry out the trust provisions and to enforce their rights in any surplus not disposed of by the will.

A petition in equity in the Probate Court was not multifarious merely because it added to a claim by the petitioners for surplus funds in the hands of a trustee under a will a prayer for the removal of the trustee and for determination of rights as between the petitioners and the estate of the testator's widow.

A petition in equity by heirs at law and next of kin of a testator to establish a resulting trust by partial intestacy in what was alleged to be a surplus in the hands of a residuary trustee not needed to carry out directions to the trustee "to purchase a suitable lot of land," "to provide for the erection of a suitable building" for a community house for the townspeople and "to provide a fund for maintaining the same," and, if in his opinion the fund was "insufficient to properly carry out the above provisions . . . to hold the fund until it shall accumulate sufficiently" to carry them out, did not set forth a right to relief where the averments did not show that the trustee had acted arbitrarily, capriciously and in bad faith in continuing to accumulate the trust fund although it had reached a sum exceeding $800,000.

PETITION IN EQUITY, filed in the Probate Court for the county of Worcester on September 25, 1939.

A demurrer by the trustees was heard by Atwood, J., and was sustained; and the petition was dismissed. The petitioners appealed.

C. W. Proctor, (E.

G. Norman with him,) for the petitioners.

D. E. Hall, for the respondents John H.

Welch and others, trustees, and another.

J. Lewiton, Assistant Attorney General, for the Attorney General.

LUMMUS, J. This is a petition to the Probate Court by the greater part of the heirs of Wendell P. Clark, late of Winchendon, who died on April 16, 1919, and whose will was allowed in said court on June 24, 1919. The will gave the residue of the estate to trustees, to hold for the lives of certain persons who are now dead, and then the trustees were directed "to purchase a suitable lot of land, and to provide for the erection of a suitable building, to be located in said Winchendon, for a Community House for the benefit of the people of the Town of Winchendon, and to provide a fund for maintaining the same." The will continued as follows:

"If in the opinion of said Trustees the fund is insufficient to properly carry out the above provisions, they are to have full power to hold the fund until it shall accumulate sufficiently to so carry out the above provisions, so as to have a building adapted to the times when it is built.

"I desire this building and fund to be known as, and maintained under the name of the Wendell P. Clark Memorial. If in the opinion of said trustees it would be for the best interests of the people of the Town of Winchendon and would more fully carry out my wishes the said Trustees are hereby authorized and empowered to establish an association or branch Young Men's Christian Association in Winchendon in which case the said Trustees are to consult with, and act in connection with the State Executive Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and when they deem it best to transfer to the control of the proper association said property, they are at liberty to do so, reserving the right to resume possession of the same, whenever the association shall fail to properly carry out the intention of this instrument. This freedom of action is given the Trustees as circumstances change with changing years, and relying on my Trustees to see that my intentions are carried out."

The petition alleges that the trust fund exceeds $800,000; that the trustees have failed to erect a community house or to purchase a lot of land therefor, or to provide a maintenance fund for the same "although the amount of funds and property in their hands is more than adequate and more than sufficient so to do"; that the trustees have not after demand formed a decision as to the amount of principal that is necessary for those purposes, or else have made a determination to accumulate a larger sum than they now have, which determination is not made in the exercise of reasonable discretion and judgment and is not in accordance with the terms of the will or for the benefit of the people of Winchendon; and "that the property in the hands of the trustees is more than sufficient and adequate to carry out the purposes of the will and that as a result thereof there is a surplus which is undisposed of and constitutes a partial intestacy and belongs to the heirs at law as a resulting trust." The prayers, among other things, ask that the court determine the amount necessary to carry out the provisions of the will, and incidentally that the executor of the will of Mary E. Clark be determined to have no right to share in the surplus; that the trustees be removed and others be appointed in their stead; and that the surplus be paid over to the petitioners.

The Probate Court sustained demurrers to the petition, and dismissed the petition. The petitioners appealed to this court.

The grounds of demurrer first to be considered are stated in the following terms: "That the petitioners have no interest or concern in the matters set forth in the petition"; that "the petitioners have no interest or concern in the administration of said trust and no standing to petition for the removal of the trustees thereunder"; that "it does not appear from the petition that the petitioners have any interest or concern in the property alleged to be in the hands of these respondents as trustees under the will of Wendell P. Clark"; that "the petitioners have no interest or concern in the performance by these respondents of their duties as trustees under the residuary bequest in the will of Wendell P. Clark, and no standing to bring this petition"; that "it appears from the petition and the will of Wendell P. Clark annexed thereto that by said will all of the rest and residue of his estate was bequeathed to the trustees thereunder upon the trusts therein set forth under which the petitioners are not beneficiaries and in which they have no interest"; and that "the allegation that there is an undisposed of surplus in the hands of ...