Ministers & Missionaries Ben. Bd. of Am. Baptist Convention v. Meriden Trust & Safe Deposit Co.

Citation139 Conn. 435,94 A.2d 917
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
Decision Date03 February 1953
PartiesMINISTERS & MISSIONARIES BENEFIT BOARD OF AMERICAN BAPTIST CONVENTION et al. v. MERIDEN TRUST & SAFE DEPOSIT CO. et al. In re IVES' WILL. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Arthur W. Chambers, New Haven, with whom were Gordon P. Chambers, New Haven, and, on the brief, George C. Conway, Atty. Gen., and William L. Beers, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiffs.

Denis T. O'Brien, Jr., Meriden, with whom were Robert M. Luby, Meriden and, on the brief, William M. Luby and Denis T. O'Brien 3d, Meriden, for defendants.

Before BROWN, C. J., and JENNINGS, BALDWIN, INGLIS and O'SULLIVAN, JJ.

O'SULLIVAN, Justice.

This matter came to the Superior Court as an appeal from probate, taken jointly by the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board and the attorney general of the state of Connecticut. The order from which the appeal was taken was entered by the Probate Court for the district of Meriden. The challenged part of the order provided that one-half of the residue of the estate of Leland H. Ives, deceased, be distributed to his wife's estate. With the consent of the parties and upon their stipulation of agreed facts, the Superior Court reserved for our advice the eight questions recited in the footnote. 1 The defendants are the named bank, as executor and trustee under the will of the testator and in similar capacities under the will of his wife, and the residuary beneficiaries under the latter will.

The facts are these: Leland H. Ives, the testator, was born in Meriden in 1859. He and his parents, John and Wealthy S. Ives, were lifelong, active members of the First Baptist Church Society of Meriden. His mother died in 1914 and his father in 1915. The testator lived opposite the church until the last few years of his life. He always contributed to it and concerned himself with its affairs, although in his later years his interest became less active. He was a member of its board of trustees for eighteen years and at one time served as chairman. This board had charge of all collections, disbursements and other financial operations of the church. He was a close friend of the Reverend Burtt Timbie, its pastor from 1912 to 1947.

Late in life, Ives married Mrs. Florence W. Fisk. There were no children born of the marriage. He died testate on January 31, 1943, in his eighty-fourth year, leaving his wife as his only heir at law and next of kin. His will had been executed on December 8, 1937. Under its terms he left the residue of his estate to the defendant bank, in trust, to pay the net income and, in its discretion, part of the principal to his wife and his sister during their lives and then to the survivor until her death. Mrs. Ives died on November 16, 1950, and his sister on July 19, 1951. By the provisions of article third the trustee was directed, upon the death of the last life tenant, to pay several legacies from the fund and thereafter (paragraph f) to hold one-half of the balance in permanent trust and turn over the net income to the First Baptist Church Society of Meriden. Article third (g) then directed the trustee 'To pay the remaining one half of all balance of principal to the Baptist Ministers' Home Society of Mt. Vernon, New York, said Society to hold the same in permanent trust, the income thereof only to be used by said Society for its general purposes and said trust fund to be known as and called 'The John and Wealthy S. Ives Fund."

The Baptist Ministers' Home Society, hereinafter called the home society, was incorporated on December 20, 1882, under the general statutes of New York permitting the incorporation of benevolent, charitable and missionary societies. The objects or general purposes of the corporation were 'to provide the aged, infirm and destitute Baptist Ministers and Missionaries, their widows and orphans, residing in the States of Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, with a comfortable residence, board, clothing, and medical attendance, and at their death, if dying within the Home, with respectable burial and for these purposes to establish and maintain a Home, which shall be known as the Baptist Ministers' Home of New York, and which shall be located in or near the City of New York, in the State of New York, and further to receive and distribute such sums of money or property, as may by the donors be designated for that purpose to the persons heretofore named, according to their necessities, instead of maintaining them at the Home.' In addition to disbursing money as grants, the home society at one time maintained its headquarters at Mt. Vernon, New York, in a house where its executive secretary and his family lived and where, until 1911, a few needy clergymen occasionally resided. The house was sold in 1919 and thereafter no shelter for anyone was maintained. The corporate existence of the home society was terminated on June 10, 1941, by the filing of a certificate of dissolution with the New York department of state.

Until the formation in 1908 of a voluntary organization then called the Northern, but now the American, Baptist Convention, co-operative projects of northern Baptists, from Maine to California, were conducted through many independent and unrelated societies. The convention is an advisory assembly of representatives from member churches throughout the northern part of the United States and it functions through the instrumentality of several corporations. The First Baptist Church of Meriden has always participated actively in convention affairs and has sent delegates to convention meetings whenever they were held within reasonable distances.

Since the relief of needy Baptist ministers, missionaries and their families had been largely neglected, except in a few local areas, the convention caused the named plaintiff to be incorporated in 1913 under the laws of the state of New York. The stated objects of this corporation, hereinafter to be called the benefit board, included the following: '* * * to administer its funds for the benefit of worthy Baptist ministers and Baptist missionaries, their wives, or widows, and their dependent children, either directly or through the medium of related organizations; to cooperate with such organizations in securing, so far as practicable, uniformity in the methods for the extension of such aid. * * *' The general plan of the convention was that eventually each of the varied activities relating to the support of ministers would be carried on exclusively by the benefit board, that all Baptists and Baptist churches could thus bring each separate service into a single, cohesive and united effort with a minimum of expense and a maximum of effectiveness, and that many small, separate and unrelated units could be discontinued and their several independent functions merged into and expanded by the single larger corporation.

The benefit board immediately organized on a convention-wide scale the relief work previously carried out locally by the home society and ten comparable societies, and raised considerable funds to perpetuate the work. From its endowment income and current contributions by churches and individuals, the benefit board has annually distributed substantial and constantly increasing amounts to needy Baptist clergymen. From 1913 to 1916 both the home society and the benefit board solicited funds within Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, with duplication of expense and effort. During this period there were frequent discussions concerning possible union of the two organizations, and these led to an agreement executed by them in 1916. Thereafter, this agreement formed the basis for their respective activities. The preamble recites that the benefit board was providing aid throughout the convention area and that the home society was doing the same work but in the limited area of the three states; that both parties had been soliciting funds within those states and that it was desirable that overlapping, duplication of appeals and resulting confusion be avoided. It was agreed that after December 31, 1916, only the benefit board would solicit support for the work, that it would assume and continue payment of all benefits then being paid by the home society, that it would take over the work theretofore done by the home society in the three states and maintain it at a standard not less than the current level, and that all new applications for aid should thereafter be made only to and be granted by the benefit board. This was done.

For a number of years after 1916, the home society retained its capital funds and all legacies received by it, but paid to the benefit board all income in excess of that required to meet the expense of maintaining its corporate existence. In 1924, the home society was authorized, by a special act of the New York legislature, to turn over to the benefit board any funds or assets which it then owned or might thereafter acquire, and in September of that year it transferred to the benefit board funds and securities in excess of $90,000. For a period thereafter, the home society retained capital funds of about $10,000, using the income for its running expenses, but all legacies which it received were regularly turned over to the benefit board.

On June 10, 1941, the home society, pursuant to its own vote, filed a certificate of dissolution of its corporate existence with the department of state of New York. For the dissolution to become effective and for its assets to be transferred to the benefit board, it was necessary to obtain the consent of the New York charities and welfare board. On the petition of the home society for permission to transfer its remaining funds to the benefit board, the Supreme Court of the state of New York entered an order authorizing the home society to 'transfer the balance of the funds and securities of the Baptist Ministers Home Society of New York to The Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board of the [American]...

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