Mary Franklin Home for Aged Women v. Edson

• Citation: 187 N.W. 546,193 Iowa 567
• Decision Date: 04 April 1922
• Docket Number: No. 34143.,34143.
• Parties: MARY FRANKLIN HOME FOR AGED WOMEN ET AL. v. EDSON ET AL.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

193 Iowa 567

187 N.W. 546

MARY FRANKLIN HOME FOR AGED WOMEN ET AL.

v.EDSON ET AL.

No. 34143.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

April 4, 1922.

Appeal from District Court, Guthrie County; J. H. Applegate, Judge.

Action by the Mary Franklin Home for Aged Women and others against Stephen S. Edson and others. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiffs appeal. The opinion sufficiently states the case. Reversed and remanded.W. D. Milligan, of Guthrie Center, for appellants.

Batschelet & Vincent, of Guthrie Center, and C. E. Berry, of Casey, for appellees.

WEAVER, J.

This action was brought in equity to quiet the title to real estate in the board of managers of a certain charitable institution known as the Mary Franklin Home for Aged Women. The facts material for the disposition of the case are not the subject of any substantial dispute and are as follows: In the year 1901 Alura M. Franklin, a resident of Guthrie county, Iowa, died testate, and her will has been duly probated. The seventh paragraph of that instrument reads as follows:

“It is my will that the executor hereof sell at public auction for cash to the highest and best bidder in parcel or in bulk, whichever he shall deem best, the following lands, to wit [here follows description of certain lands of which the testator died seized] and that the proceeds thereof be used for the sole purpose of purchasing a small tract of land in the town of Guthrie Center, Iowa, or, adjacent thereto, and erecting thereon a suitable building to be used only as a charitable home for aged women and any surplus that shall remain to be used as an endowment fund for said institution, which shall be named the Mary Franklin Home. It is my further will that three persons shall be appointed as trustees thereof, to be known as the board of managers by the district court of Iowa, in and for Guthrie county, one of which shall be a member of the M. E. Church, one of the Presbyterian Church, and one of the Baptist Church of the said town, and that said trustees shall have power to locate said institution, purchase said land, in the name of Guthrie county for the use of said institution, erect said building, invest or place to the best advantage said endowment fund, and to manage, and control said institution, and if any vacancy occur on said board, it shall be filled by the church of which the person vacating was a member. The power of substitution or removal for cause of any member of the said board shall be vested in the respective churches as to their representative on said board. This bequest is made with the hope and desire that other charitable persons will aid in creating a suitable endowment for said institution that it may be a blessing to society, and especially to the aged women of Guthrie county, who need assistance, regardless of denomination; the churches herein authorized to maintain said board of managers, are named only as a means of perpetuating said institution and board, and interesting many people in the same.”

The land so devised was duly sold and converted into money and the trustees named pursuant to the foregoing device did purchase therewith a suitable lot as a site for the home and erected thereon a building for the purpose designated in said trust, and from that time down to the beginning of this action various aged women had been admitted to and maintained in said home. It appears, however, that the hope indulged in by the testatrix that the endowment fund would be enhanced by gifts from other charitably disposed persons was not realized and that after paying the expense incurred in the purchase of a lot and construction of the building, the remainder of the proceeds of the sale of the devised lands was not sufficient to constitute an adequate permanent endowment for the support and maintenance of the home. The result of these conditions was that the “surplus” of which the testatrix speaks in her will was gradually exhausted. The title to the lot selected as a site for the home was taken in the name of Guthrie county. In 1919 the board of managers, with whom were united as plaintiffs all the remaining inmates of the home, three in number, filed a petition in the district court of Guthrie county for a decree authorizing the sale of the home property. To that proceeding the county was made defendant, but made no defense. Upon the hearing to the court a decree was entered, reciting the creation of the trust and the building and maintenance of the home; that the endowment fund was practically exhausted; that there was no other available means for the maintenance of the charity and the trust would entirely fail if relief were not granted, and it was therefore ordered and adjudged that the managers be authorized to sell the property of the home. For the preservation and proper use of the proceeds of such sale the decree then made provision, as follows:

“The managers shall then use whatever funds remain on hand, to support, board, provide and care for any aged women of Guthrie county, Iowa, who are or may become proper object of charity, including said inmates, as may be just, right, and charitable, and as may be right and proper, subject at all times to the control of this court, on proper application of any one interested in the proper and just use of said funds thus charitably provided, when not thus loaned or invested by said board of managers. Said board of managers of said Mary Franklin Home, are hereby ordered, directed, authorized, and empowered to make, execute and deliver any and all necessary contracts, deeds, or bills of sale or whatsoever instruments may be necessary to sell, assign, convey, or transfer any of said real or personal property to any purchaser accepted by them pursuant to this decree, and to thus vest fully in any such purchaser or purchasers thereof the full feesimple, or legal title thereto, fully divested of said trust and title now held by defendant, and to receive and receipt for all proceeds thereof.”

No appeal appears to have been taken from this decree, and it stands for whatever it may be worth uncanceled and unchallenged of record. Later the managers appear to have thought it advisable to quiet the title to the property against any possible claim of right or interest therein by the heirs at law of Alura M. Franklin, and brought this action against them for that purpose. The petition, after alleging title in the home and in the managers for its use and benefit, prays a decree quieting the same in them, and barring and estopping defendant from having or claiming any interest therein. To this action the defendants appeared and filed a general demurrer to the petition on the ground that it does not state facts entitling plaintiff to the relief demanded. The demurrer was sustained, and, plaintiffs electing to stand upon their petition without further pleading, appeal from said ruling was taken. In sustaining the demurrer, the court expressly withholds any findings or adjudication upon the right or interest of the defendants in the property, and limits its consideration to the inquiry into the plaintiff's title. The views of the court are embodied in an opinion evincing much study, which is principally devoted to a discussion of the question whether, assuming the fact that this charity has failed, or is about to fail, for want of endowment and lack of support, may the managers or the court under an application of the so-called cy pres rule or other legal or equitable principle, convert the corpus of the trust into money and apply it as far as it will go to the promotion of charitable relief of like nature with that which the creator of the trust sought to promote by her gift.

[1] I. The case presented by the petition demurred to and the ruling to which exception is taken suggest the inquiry whether the subject to which the appellee's argument and the opinion of the trial court are chiefly devoted is at all relevant to the appellants' demand for the quieting of their title. Stripped of all superfluous matter, the petition alleged plaintiff's title to the property, and asks to have the same quieted in them as against the defendants who are the heirs at law of Alura M. Franklin. The defendants deny nothing alleged in the petition, but by demurrer admit the truth of all its material allegations of fact. This admission includes the fact that Alura M. Franklin died seized of the described land; that she left a valid will; that s...