Triplett v. Trotter

• Decision Date: 11 November 1937
• Citation: 193 S.E. 514
• Parties: TRIPLETT et al. v. TROTTER et al.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

193 S.E. 514

TRIPLETT et al.

v.TROTTER et al.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Nov. 11, 1937.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Shenandoah County; Philip Williams, Judge.

Suit by Leonidas Triplett and others against Herbert Trotter, executor of Joseph I. Triplett, deceased, and others. From the decree, Leonidas Triplett and others appeal.

Affirmed.

Argued before CAMPBELL, C. J, and HOLT, HUDGINS, EGGLESTON, and SPRATLEY, JJ.

Aubrey G. Weaver, of Front Royal, Kern & Kern, of Winchester, J. Donald Richards, of Warrenton, and Lewis Williams, of Richmond, for appellants.

R. Gray Williams, of Winchester, and F. S. Tavenner, of Woodstock, for appellees.

EGGLESTON, Justice.

This appeal involves the interpretation and validity of certain provisions of Dr. Joseph I. Triplett's will, the probate of which was settled in Triplett's Executor v. Triplett, 161 Va. 906, 172 S.E. 162. The will is quite lengthy, and only those portions which are material to the questions here involved will be set out.

After making certain relatively small specific bequests, the testator devised and bequeathed the remainder of his property for the purpose of founding, building, and maintaining an educational institution to be known as "Triplett Business College, " to be located on certain designated land in Shenandoah county, Va. To carry out the provisions of the trust, he named four trustees who were to constitute a self-perpetuating board, and who were given wide discretion in the building, maintenance, and operation of the college.

The precise language around which the present controversy centers is this:

"To all worthy and dependent young men to obtain a business education was the inspiration in founding the institution. Hence the earnings of the endowment will be primarily subject to the maintenance of the school as may be needed, in consequence of free-tuition-students-whom are to be welcomed to the full capacity of the College if the earnings of the endowment are adequate which is my desire it shall be. * * * " * * * Applicants for scholarships will be required to furnish satisfactory evidence of their actual need of such assistance and hold certificates of graduation at a High School or other favorably regarded schools issuing certificates of proficiency in English Branches--and be residents of the State, or Counties of Jefferson, Hampshire, Berkley, Hardy, Grant and Pendleton, West Va., and of the States of North and South Carolina, preferably of such sections where the Tripletts Woodstock Mills products are marketed in the latter States, * * *

"The trustees will fill vacancies occurring in the board and the Board of Trustees will have charge of the finances. * * * "

By appropriate proceedings in the court below, those interested attacked the provisions in the will for establishing and maintaining the college. From a decree upholding the validity of the trust, the present appeal has been taken.

Counsel for the respective parties here agree that at common law in Virginia all gifts to trustees for educational or charitable purposes are void and must fail unless validated by some act of the Legislature.

Appellees contend, and the lower court held, that the gift here is validated by Code, § 587 (as amended by the Acts of 1914, c. 324 p. 414), which reads as follows:

"Every gift, grant, devise or bequest which, since the second day of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, has been, or at any time hereafter shall be, made for literary purposes, or for the education of white persons within this State, and every gift, grant, devise, or bequest which, since the tenth of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five has been, or at any time hereafter shall be, made for literary purposes, or for the education of colored persons within this State, and every gift, grant, devise or bequest hereafter made for charitable purposes, whether made in any case to a body corporate or unincorporated, or to a natural person, shall be as valid as if made to or for the benefit of a certain natural person, except such devises or bequests, if any, as have failed or become void by virtue of the seventh section of the act of the General Assembly passed on the said second of April, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine entitled 'an act concerning devises made to schools, academies, and col leges.' Nothing in this section shall be so construed as to give validity to any devise or bequest to or for the use of any unincorporated theological seminary."

On their part appellants contend that the gift is not validated by this section, because, they say:

(1) The will neither expressly nor impliedly shows whether the college is to be used for the education of white persons or colored persons, and such specification is required by the statute in the case of a trust for educational purposes.

(2) The will provides for the education in the college of persons not residents of Virginia, whereas the statute validates a gift only for the education of residents of this state.

(3) The will fails to specify whether the beneficiaries are white or colored...