Straw v. Trustees of East Maine Conference of M.E. Church

• Decision Date: 08 May 1877
• Citation: 67 Me. 493
• Parties: DAVID R. STRAW, jr., executor, v. TRUSTEES OF THE EAST MAINE CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, et als.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

67 Me. 493

DAVID R. STRAW, jr., executor, v. TRUSTEES OF THE EAST MAINE CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, et als.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

May 8, 1877

BILL IN EQUITY, asking the construction of the will of Bial Edes, a widow, who died at Guilford, August 15, 1874, without parents or issue. The will, dated July 8, 1874, duly proved at the October term of the probate court, 1874, contains three items. The first names the plaintiff executor and provides for debts and funeral expenses. Then follows:

" Second--I give and bequeath to each of my sisters Betsey Mitchell, Lucretia West and Phebe Soule, and each of my brothers, Cornelius Soule and Isaac Soule, if living, the sum of one dollar.

Third--I give, devise and bequeath all the rest and residue of my estate, real and personal, to the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society of Maine, to be paid to them as soon as may conveniently be done after my decease."

The bill states that there is no society so named; but there is one corporation named " Trustees of the East Maine Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church," and another named " Missionary Society of the East Maine Conference," and asks the construction of the will in this: Whether the devise under the circumstances of the case is valid and will justify the plaintiff in delivering the residue of the estate to either of the corporations, and if to either, which.

Other facts appear in the opinion.

A W. Paine, for the plaintiff.

J. M Goodwin & W. F. Lunt, for the heirs-at-law.

PETERS J.

The testatrix made a bequest to " The Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society of Maine." This is, no doubt, a charitable bequest. The Maine Baptist Missionary Convention v. City of Portland, 65 Me. 92. And it is to be sustained, if either the trustee or the cestui que trust can be ascertained. Howard v. The American Peace Society, 49 Me. 288.

There is no society answering literally the description in the will. There are four societies which, by possibility, might compete for the bequest; to one of them it evidently belongs. They are:

1. The Missionary Society of the East Maine Conference.

2. The Maine Conference Missionary Society.

3. Trustees of the Maine Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

4. Trustees of the East Maine Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The state of Maine is divided territorially by the Methodist denomination into two general conferences, the Kennebec river being mainly the dividing line; that west of the river including therewith a portion of New Hampshire. These conferences are neither of them legal corporations, but are merely assemblies composed of ministers and delegates from the churches, and presided over by the bishop.

Connected respectively with these conferences, are the two societies first and secondly named in the above list. Neither can be entitled to the bequest. They are not incorporated. They are merely associations, organized under the rules and discipline of the Methodist church, for the purpose of collecting and...