Russell v. Allen, Ex

• Decision Date: 05 March 1883
• Citation: 2 S.Ct. 327,27 L.Ed. 397,107 U.S. 163
• Parties: RUSSELL and another v. ALLEN, EX'X, and others
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

107 U.S. 163

2 S.Ct. 327

27 L.Ed. 397

RUSSELL and another v. ALLEN, EX'X, and others.

March 5, 1883.

Wm. Brown, for appellants.

Wm. R. Donaldson and C. H. Krum, for appellees.

GRAY, J.

This is a bill in equity, filed on the sixteenth of April, 1878, by two of the heirs at law and next of kin of William Russell, of St. Louis, against Thomas Allen, to establish a trust in favor of Russell's heirs at law and next of kin, and for an account.

The bill alleges that on the nineteenth of July, 1855, William Russell and John S. Horner executed four indentures of trust by each of which Russell, in consideration of one dollar paid, 'and for divers other good and valuable considerations, but chiefly for the purpose of founding an institution for the education of youth in St. Louis county, Missouri,' granted and conveyed to Horner, his executors and administrators or successors, in trust forever, certain lands and personal property in the state of Arkansas, to have and to hold the same unto him, his executors, administrators, and successors, in trust, 'to and for the following uses and purposes, to-wit, the said property is conveyed for the use and benefit of the Russell Institute of St. Louis, Missouri;' and empowered and directed him and them to sell the same as soon as conveniently might be, and to account for and pay over the proceeds yearly or oftener, deducting the reasonable expenses of executing the trust, 'to Thomas Allen, president of the board of trustees of the said Russell Institute at St. Louis, Missouri, and his receipt therefor shall be a full discharge of the said party of the second part for the amount so paid and the application thereof;' and Horner's trust to be brought to a close and the net proceeds paid over as soon as conveniently might be, and if not concluded within 10 years the property remaining undisposed of to be sold by public auction and the proceeds paid over as before required. In each of the four indentures reference was made to the three others, and it was 'declared that all of said conveyances, including this, are made to one and the same person for one and the same use and purpose, and that the same are and are to be deemed and taken and accounted for as one trust, according to the conditions of the deeds respectively, it having been intended by said deeds and this present one to convey all of the remaining property of the said William Russell in the said state of Arkansas to the said party of the second part, to and for the use and benefit of the said Russell Institute of St. Louis, Missouri.' After this clause, in one of the indentures, were added the words 'represented by their president aforesaid.' Each indenture contained a covenant by Horner 'faithfully to perform the trust hereby created.'

The bill further alleges that Horner, in the execution of his trust, has converted a large portion of the property into money, has paid over to Allen the sum of about $50,000, and has conveyed and transferred to Allen the property remaining unsold, and that Allen holds and controls the whole fund, and has never applied to any court for aid in the disposition and application thereof, and has in no way used or recognized the fund as held by him in trust for the uses declared by Russell.

The bill further alleges that there was not at the time of the execution of the indentures aforesaid, nor before or since, any such educational institution as was referred to therein; that at the time of such execution Russell was from paralysis infirm in body and weak in mind, and that, while he then manifestly proposed to found such an institution, yet in his increasing incapacity of body and mind during the short period that intervened between that time and his death he failed to accomplish his philanthropic purpose; that he died in 1856, without ever having founded such an institution, or delegated to Horner or to Allen, or to any other person or corporation, authority to organize a Russell Institute, and that no such authority has hitherto been exercised or claimed by any person or corporation, and there is and has been no donee capable of receiving, holding, and administering the trust fund created by the indentures; that the beneficiaries of the trust, so far as can be determined by the terms of the indentures, are uncertain and indefinite, and the trust is invalid, and, there being no debts outstanding against Russell's estate, the trust fund belongs to his next of kin.

To this bill Allen filed a general demurrer, which was sustained and the bill dismissed. 5 Dill. 235. The plaintiffs appealed to this court. Pending the appeal, Allen has died, and his executors have been made parties in his stead.

The deeds of gift state that they are made 'chiefly for the purpose of founding an institution for the education of youth in St. Louis county, Missouri;' they convey the property to Horner and his successors in trust 'for the use and benefit of the Russell Institute of St. Louis, Missouri;' they direct him to sell the property and account for and pay over the proceeds 'to Thomas Allen, president of the board of trustees of the said Russell Institute of St. Louis, Missouri,' whose receipt shall be a full discharge of Horner; and they end by declaring that all these conveyances shall be deemed taken and accounted for as one trust, and that it is the intention of the donor to convey the property included in all of them 'to and for the benefit of the said Russell Institute of St. Louis, Missouri,' to which one of the deeds adds, 'represented by their president as aforesaid.'

The donor thus clearly manifests his purpose to found an institution for the education of youth in St. Louis, to be called by his name; and he executes this purpose by conveying the property to Horner in trust, to hold and convert into money, and pay that money to the officers of the institute when incorporated and a board of trustees appointed. The direction to pay the money to Allen, as president of the board of trustees, and the mention, at the close of one of the deeds, of the institute as represented by its president as aforesaid, clearly show that the fund is not to be paid to Allen individually; and while they imply the donor's wish that Allen should be the first president of the board of trustees of the institute, they do not make his appointment to and acceptance of that office a condition of the validity of the gift or of the carrying out of the donor's charitable purpose. The terms of the deeds clearly show that the donor did not contemplate or intend doing any further act to perfect his gift. It is not pretended that the allegations in the bill as to his weakness of body and mind amount to an allegation of insanity, and they are irrelevant and immaterial.

The principal grounds upon which the plaintiffs seek to maintain their bill are that the deeds create a perpetuity; that the uses declared are not charitable; and that, if the uses are charitable, there are no ascertained beneficiaries, and no donee capable of assuming and administering the trust, and the uses are too indefinite to be specifically executed by a court of chancery. But these positions, as applied to the facts of the case, are inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the law of charitable uses, as established by the decisions of this and other courts exercising the ordinary jurisdiction in equity.

By the law of England from before the statute of 43 Eliz. c. 4, and by the law of this country at the present day, (except in those states in which it has been restricted by statute or judicial decision, as in Virginia, Maryland, and more recently in New York,) trusts for public charitable purposes are upheld under circumstances under which private trusts would fail. Being for objects of permanent interest and benefit to the public, they may be perpetual in their duration, and are not within the rule against perpetuities; and the instruments creating them should be so construed as to give them effect if possible, and to carry out the general intention of the donor, when clearly manifested, even if the particular form or manner pointed out by him cannot be followed. They may, and indeed must, be for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons; for if all the beneficiaries are personally designated, the trust lacks the essential element of indefiniteness, which is one characteristic of a legal charity. If the founder describes the general nature of a charitable trust, he may leave the details of its administration to be settled by trustees under the superintendence of a court of chancery; and an omission to name trustees, or the death or declination of the trustees named, will not defeat the trust, but the court will appoint new trustees in their stead.

The previous adjudications of this court upon the subject of charitable uses go far towards determining the question presented in this case. As the extent and effect of these adjudications have hardly been appreciated, it will be convenient to state the substance of them.

The case of Baptist Association v. Hart, 4 Wheat. 1, in which a bequest by a citizen of Virginia 'to the Baptist Association that for ordinary meets at Philadelphia annually,' as 'a perpetual fund for the education of youths of the Baptist denomination who shall appear promising for the ministry,' was declared void, was decided upon an imperfect survey of the early English authorities, and upon the theory that the English law of charitable uses, which, it was admitted, would sustain the bequest, had its origin in the statute of Elizabeth, which had been repealed in Virginia. That theory has since, upon a more thorough examination of the precedents, been clearly shown to be erroneous. Vidal v. Girard, 2 How. 127; Perin v. Carey, 24 How. 465; Ould v. Washington Hospital, 95 U. S. 303. And the only cases in which this court has followed the decision in Baptist Association v. Hart have, like it, arisen in the state of Virginia...