Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston v. Rector of Trinity Church in the City of Boston

• Decision Date: 24 March 1928
• Citation: 263 Mass. 173
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
• Parties: TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE CITY OF BOSTON v. RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH IN THE CITY OF BOSTON & another.

263 Mass. 173

TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE CITY OF BOSTON v. RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH IN THE CITY OF BOSTON & another.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

March 24, 1928

November 8, 9 1927.

Present: BRALEY CROSBY, WAIT, & SANDERSON, JJ.

Trust, Construction of instrument creating trust. Devise and Legacy. Municipal Corporations, Department. Words, "Department expenses." A testator by his will set up trust funds for the benefit of the Boston

Public Library; and further provided that in any year when the city did not appropriate for the maintenance of the library at least three per cent "of the amount available for department expenses from taxes and income in said City," the income of the funds should be paid to the rector of a certain church. The trustees of the fund sought instructions as to the distribution of the income in a year when the city did not appropriate for library purposes three per cent of the amount available for departmental expenses, if the expenses of the schools, of the police department, of the licensing board and of the finance commission as departments of the city were included. Held, that

(1) The words "department expenses," were to be construed according to their natural, usual and popular meaning, in the absence of evidence that they were used in a different sense;

(2) Groups of individuals exercising local or internal powers and duties may be deemed to be acting as departments of a municipality irrespective of the degree or kind of control over them possessed by the

Commonwealth as contrasted with the local government; (3) The words, "department expenses," as used in the will included expenses of schools, of the police department, of the licensing board and of the finance commission, and were so used by the testator;

(4) The net income of the funds for the year in question should be paid to rector of the designated church.

BILL IN EQUITY, filed in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk on February 25, 1927, and afterwards amended, for instructions.

The suit was heard by Carroll, J., upon the pleadings and an agreed statement of facts. He ruled as stated in the opinion and reported the suit to the full court for determination.

J.P. Lyons, Assistant Corporation Counsel, for the plaintiffs. A. Marshall, for the defendant Rector of Trinity Church in the City of Boston.

CROSBY, J. This is a bill in equity by the Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston, brought in their capacity as trustees of a fund of $100,000 under the will of the late Josiah H. Benton for instructions as to the proper disposition of the income from this trust fund for the years 1923 and 1924.

The testator was a leading member of the bar, and for some years before and up to the time of his death was president of the board of trustees of the library. He died February 6, 1917, leaving a will dated November 15, 1916, which was allowed by the Probate Court on March 18, 1917. The case was heard by a single justice of this court upon the amended petition, amended answers, and a statement of agreed facts, which the single justice found to be true. The issues involved the construction of certain portions of the eleventh and twelfth clauses of the will, which are as follows:

"Eleventh: I give to the TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE CITY OF BOSTON one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) to be held as `THE CHILDREN'S FUND,' and the income applied to the purchase of books for the use of the young. . . .

"Twelfth: All the rest and residue of my property and estate, I give and devise to ARTHUR F. CLARKE of Brookline and HORACE G. WADLIN of Reading, IN TRUST to hold, manage, invest, and reinvest and to apply as follows:

"1, -- To pay from the income of said residue and remainder, and if necessary from the principal thereof, the sum of twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) each year in equal quarterly payments, to my wife, MARY A. BENTON, during her natural life.

"2, -- And upon the death of my said wife to pay all of said residue and remainder of my estate then remaining and all interest and accumulations thereon, to the TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE CITY OF BOSTON, to be held, managed, invested and reinvested in obligations of any of the New England States or the States of New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa or Minnesota; and I DIRECT that the same be held and used in the manner following, that is to say: --

"First: -- One-half of the net income of such residue and remainder to be applied by the Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston for the purchase of books, maps and other library material of permanent value and benefit for said Library; meaning and intending hereby that such income shall be applied for books desirable for scholarly research and use.

"Second: -- To hold the other one-half of said residue and remainder as an accumulating fund, the income and interest to be added to the principal and reinvested as principal, until the total amount thereof shall be two million dollars ($2,000,000). And then I DIRECT such total sum of two million dollars ($2,000,000) to be applied to the enlargement of the present central library building in Boston, or to the construction of another central library building in such part of the city as may be then most desirable for the accommodation of the people of said City; such new building to be constructed under the advice of the Librarian of the Library at that time in such manner as may be most desirable for efficient practical working of a library therein.

"It is my desire that the income of the one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) given by the Eleventh Clause of my will for the `CHILDREN'S FUND' and the income given by the Twelfth Clause of my will for the purchase of books, maps and other library material of permanent value and benefit, shall be in addition to the sums appropriated by the City for the maintenance of the Boston Public Library, and that the same shall not be taken into account in any appropriation by the City for that purpose.

"I, therefore, hereby provide that such income of the one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) given by the Eleventh Clause of my will, and such income as is given by the Twelfth Clause of my will for the purchase of books, maps, and other library material, shall be applied for those purposes only in years when the City appropriates for the maintenance of the Boston Public Library at least three per cent (3%) of the amount available for department expenses from taxes and income in said City.

"In any year when the City does not thus appropriate at least three per cent (3%) of the amount available for department expenses from taxes and income in said City, the income given in said will for the purchase of books shall be paid to the Rector of Trinity Church in the City of Boston to be by him dispensed in relieving the necessities of the poor."

It appears in the agreed facts that if the words "department expenses" as used in the twelfth clause of the will include expenses of the schools, police department, finance commission, and the licensing board, the city of Boston did not in the municipal years ending January 31, 1923, and January 31, 1924, appropriate three per cent of the amount available for department expenses as thus defined; and that if the city had appropriated for the library during the years ...