Mississippi Valley Trust Co. v. Ruhland
| Decision Date | 12 September 1949 |
| Docket Number | 41201 |
| Citation | 222 S.W.2d 750,359 Mo. 616 |
| Parties | Mississippi Valley Trust Company, a Corporation, Co-executor under the Will of Rosa Ruhland, Deceased, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Harry James Ruhland, Individually and as Co-executor under the Will of Rosa Ruhland, Deceased, Jessie May David, Florence Carey, Ruth Batchler Noyes, June Finegan Crickard, Helen Edna Veninga and Edward C. Schneider, Guardian ad litem for Barbara Noyes, a Minor, Defendants-Appellants, Samuel Marsh as and only as Director of the Department of Public Health and Welfare of the State of Missouri, Proctor N. Carter as and only as the Director of Welfare of the Division of Welfare of the Department of Public Health and Welfare of the State of Missouri, and L. N. Coffman, C. Cicero Ogle, Leo W. Highley, Earl E. Young, and W. E. Barton as and only as the Board of Trustees of the Federal Soldiers' Home, Defendants-Respondents, Donald J. Weiss, Intervenor-Respondent, German General Protestant Orphans' Association, a Corporation, Blind Girls' Home, a Corporation, Good Samaritan Hospital, a Corporation, the Home of the Friendless, a Corporation, St. Louis Women's Christian Association, a Corporation, Defendants |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court of City of St. Louis; Hon. Francis E Williams, Judge.
Affirmed.
The facts and holding of the case are adequately summarized by headnote No. 2.
Harry A. Frank for appellants.
(1) The Laws of 1897, pages 28 to 30, providing for the acceptance of a conveyance of the St. James Soldiers' Home from the Woman's Relief Corps Soldiers' Home, a private corporation, and providing that the expenses and maintenance of the Home shall be borne by the State and paid out of appropriations by the Legislature, were contractual and by this solemn contract said State institution at St. James Missouri, was not authorized to accept gifts and bequests from private sources. Laws 1897, pp. 28-30; Secs. 15136-15411, R.S. 1939; 49 Amer. Jur., sec. 33, p. 251, and sec. 62, p. 275; Hale v. Stimson, 198 Mo. 134, 95 S.W. 885. (2) Laws 1945, p. 1758, Sec. 15138, R.S. approved July 15, 1946, and 18 months after the death of testatrix on January 3, 1945, which specifically authorized the St. James Home to accept gifts and bequests from private individuals could not act retrospectively and retroactively to the date of the testatrix's death and did not give said St. James Home capacity to accept the bequest under the Ruhland will on the date said will became effective, as that would impair the obligation of the aforesaid contract. Constitution 1875, Sec. 15, Art. II; Constitution 1945, Sec. 13, Art. I; Lucas v. Murphy, 156 S.W.2d 686, 348 Mo. 1078; Graham Paper Co. v. Gehner, 59 S.W.2d 49, 332 Mo. 155; 50 Amer. Jur., sec. 480, p. 503. (3) The right to take property under a will is not a natural right, but is a creature of law. Under the Missouri Statutes, it is the policy of the Legislature to prohibit and deny to a State institution the power and capacity to receive and accept gifts and bequests by wills from private individuals, unless specific authority is given by legislative enactment. 59 C.J., sec. 276, p. 164; 68 C.J., sec. 122, p. 503; In re Rogers Estate, 250 S.W. 576. (4) This is demonstrated by the following laws of Missouri, in effect at date of testatrix's death, January 3, 1945. Gifts to the State for educational purposes, Sec. 643, R.S. 1939; State Eleemosynary Hospitals at Fulton, St. Joseph, Nevada, Farmington, Mt. Vernon and Marshall, Sec. 9272; Feeble-Minded Colony at Marshall, Sec. 9389; Public School Fund of the State of Missouri, Sec. 10887; Confederate Soldiers' Home at Higginsville, Sec. 15134; Cities of Various Classes for Public Parks, Secs. 7638, 15339, 15347 and 15387; Counties to act as trustees and execute trusts for charitable purposes, Sec. 13786; Counties for tuberculosis hospitals, Secs. 15180 and 15191, and for County hospitals, Sec. 15204; Firemen's Pension Fund, Sec. 9503. (5) In January, 1945, there was no statutory law authorizing the Federal Soldiers' Home at St. James, Missouri, to accept and receive gifts and legacies, and said Home had no capacity to receive and accept the bequest in this Ruhland Will. The Laws of 1945, p. 1758, were approved July 15, 1946, more than 18 months after the testatrix's death, and said law cannot act retroactively. (6) Courts cannot by implication read into a statute that which the said statute does not warrant. 50 Amer. Jur., sec. 274, p. 261, and sec. 243, p. 238; Caldwell v. Ryan, 210 Mo. 17, 108 S.W. 533. (7) Sec. 15137 and Sec. 9366, R.S. 1939, provided no specific authority to accept legacies and bequests, but designed the accounting, bookkeeping, manner and method by which funds derived from products or employment of inmates, from use and sale of property, grants from the Federal Government and such sources were to be handled and paid into the State treasury and subject to release only by appropriation enactment by the General Assembly. (8) Under a contractual obligation, or a constitutional restriction, or a statutory limitation, and where the State has not given its consent to the acquisition of property in a particular way, a gift or bequest to a State institution is null and void. 59 C.J., sec. 276, p. 164; In re Beck Estate, 44 Mont. 561, 121 P. 784; United States v. Fox, 94 U.S. 315, aff. 52 N.Y.S. 530; Lehnherr v. Feldman, 110 Kan. 115, 202 P. 624; Kennett v. Kidd, 87 Kan. 652, 125 P. 36; Proctor v. Board of Trustees M.E. Church South, 225 Mo. 51, 123 S.W. 862; Succession of Hardesty, 22 La. Ann. 332; Wait v. Society of Political Study, 123 N.Y.S. 637; Daniel v. Fain, 73 Tenn. 319. (9) To constitute a public charity the gift must first be lawful, valid, proper and consistent with existing laws before the court will inquire into the charitable uses and purposes thereof. An absolute and outright bequest free from trust which is invalid, null and void cannot be a charitable gift. Putman's Estate v. Gideon, 232 Mo.App. 460, 119 S.W.2d 6; 10 Amer. Jur., sec. 3, p. 586, and sec. 14, p. 594; 65 C.J., sec. 59, p. 276; Daniel v. Fain, 73 Tenn. 319; Burrier v. Jones, 338 Mo. 679, 92 S.W.2d 885; Evangelical Lutheran Synod v. Hoehn, 355 Mo. 257, 196 S.W.2d 134.
Lashly, Lashly, Miller & Clifford, Jacob M. Lashly and George S. Roudebush for plaintiff-respondent.
J. E. Taylor, Attorney General, Hugh P. Williamson and Frank P. Motherway, Assistant Attorneys General, for defendants-respondents.
(1) The Federal Soldiers' Home at St. James, Missouri, had the capacity to receive a bequest from a private individual on January 3, 1945, the date of Rosa Ruhland's death. 1 Page on Wills, p. 393; Fulbright v. Perry County, 145 Mo 432, 46 S.W. 955; Chambers v. St. Louis, 29 Mo. 543; Adkins v. Kalter, 287 S.W. 388, 171 Ark. 1111; Dixon v. U.S., 125 Mass. 311; 49 Am. Jur. 269; Secs. 643, 6403, 9363, 9366, 15137, R.S. 1939; Laws 1945, p. 1758; 59 C.J., p. 164, sec. 276. (2) It is the contention of the respondent that, in view of the authorities quoted above in Point (1), the Federal Soldiers' Home at St. James had the power to accept bequests from private individuals on January 3, 1945, the date of Rosa Ruhland's death, but that even if it did not have such power on said date that such power was conferred upon it by an act of the Missouri Legislature, effective July 15, 1946, referred to above, (Laws 1945, page 1758). Memorandum from office of Attorney General, May 19, 1948, to Honorable Phil M. Donnelly, Governor of Missouri, In re -- House Bill No. 420; Legg v. Wagner, 155 S.W.2d 146; Lansdale v. Dearing, 173 S.W.2d 25, 356 Mo. 356; Laws 1945, p. 1758; McManus v. Park, 287 Mo. 109; Clarke v. Railroad, 219 Mo. 524; Benas v. Maher, 128 F.2d 247; State ex rel. v. Haid, 52 S.W.2d 183, 330 Mo. 1093; Aetna Insurance Co. v. O'Malley, 118 S.W.2d 3, 342 Mo. 800; 59 C.J., p. 164, sec. 276; 147 A.L.R. 728. (3) The will of Rosa Ruhland (Item 8 of which is the subject of the present controversy) was drawn August 25, 1938, with a codicil executed January 23, 1939. At the time that this will was drawn, and for the preceding 42 years (the transfer of the Federal Soldiers' Home at St. James from the Woman's Relief Corps to the State of Missouri, having been effected in 1897) this Home had been owned by the State of Missouri. It is to be presumed that Rosa Ruhland knew of this fact, that she made her bequest to the Home with this fact in mind, and intended that it be made under the conditions that existed with respect to the Home at the time the will was drawn, which were the same conditions that existed at the time (Jan. 3, 1945) that the will and the bequest under it became operative. That this is true, that all persons are presumed to know the law, from a strictly legal point of view, there can be no doubt. Isaac T. Cook Co. v. Craddock-Terry Co., 109 S.W.2d 731; Garrett v. Wiltse, 252 Mo. 699; State v. Douglas, 312 Mo. 373; State v. Crumes, 319 Mo. 24; Eastman v. U.S., 328 U.S. 852; Poe v. Ill. Central R., 339 Mo. 1025. (4) However, more particularly, the law presumes that testators know the law and prepare their wills accordingly. Trautz v. Lemp, 329 Mo. 580; Graham v. Karr, 331 Mo. 1157; Hood v. St. Louis Union Trust Co., 334 Mo. 404; St. Louis Union Trust Co. v. Hill, 336 Mo. 17; Long v. Long, 38 S.W.2d 288. (5) The object of the bequest was in existence and was ascertainable at the time the will and the bequest became operative. McGregory v. Gaskill, 296 S.W. 833; Society of Helpers of Holy Souls v. Law, 267 Mo. 667. (6) In his brief the appellant states that on March 21, 1946, an assistant attorney general of Missouri, at the request of the superintendent of the Home, held that: "An examination of the statutes of Missouri reveals no statute which would authorize any Commission or officer...
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