Watling v. Watling

• Decision Date: 10 November 1926
• Docket Number: No. 633.,633.
• Citation: 15 F.2d 719
• Parties: WATLING v. WATLING et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

15 F.2d 719 (1926)

WATLING v. WATLING et al.

No. 633.

District Court, E. D. Michigan, S. D.

November 10, 1926.

Lucking, Helfman, Lucking & Hanlon, of Detroit, Mich., for plaintiff.

Stevenson, Carpenter, Butzel & Backus, of Detroit, Mich., for defendant Watling.

Campbell, Bulkley & Ledyard, of Detroit, Mich., for defendant Union Trust Co.

SIMONS, District Judge.

This cause, which has been submitted to the court for final decision and decree on bill and answer and the proofs taken thereon, involves and requires the construction of a testamentary trust and of the rights and obligations of the trustee and of the beneficiaries thereunder.

The plaintiff, Lucile Watling, who is one of the beneficiaries of said trust, is a resident citizen of Maryland, and the defendants, John W. Watling, who is the other beneficiary under said trust, his children, and the Union Trust Company, a Michigan corporation, which is the present trustee of such trust, are resident citizens of Michigan, and the jurisdiction of this court has been properly invoked on the ground of the requisite diversity of citizenship, accompanied by the jurisdictional amount of the matter in controversy. The bill seeks to have certain provisions of said trust construed and enforced.

The facts, as they have been proved to the satisfaction of this court and are hereby formally found by the court, may be stated, sufficiently for the purposes of this opinion, as follows:

John A. Watling died testate in 1919, leaving the following last will, made in 1909 and probated in 1919:

"I, John A. Watling, of the city of Washington, in the District of Columbia, being of full age and of sound mind, do hereby make, execute, publish and declare this to be my last will and testament, as follows, to wit:

"1. I hereby revoke all former wills and codicils by me at any time heretofore made.

"2. I hereby appoint my son, John W. Watling, and my friend, William F. McCorkle, both of the city of Detroit, county of Wayne, and state of Michigan, the executors of this will, and I give to them full power to sell and convey all my estate, both real and personal, or any part thereof, without asking or obtaining license from any court for that purpose, and I direct that my said executors be required to give a nominal bond only.

"3. I hereby direct that all my debts, funeral expenses and the expenses of administering my estate, shall first be paid out of my estate, also all inheritance taxes, of any kind, taxable against any of the beneficiaries under this will.

"4. I hereby make the following devises and bequests upon the express condition that they shall be in lieu of and in full payment and satisfaction of all the claims, rights, title and interest of the beneficiaries in and to my estate:

"5. I give and devise my homestead, in the city of Ypsilanti, Michigan, with sixty (60) feet of frontage, to my wife Eunice W. Watling, subject to the right of way over the present roadway running between my said homestead and my office intending that the office building, with twenty-five (25) feet of frontage, shall constitute a part of the residue of my estate. I also give and bequeath to my said wife, all my clothing, jewelry, and other articles of personal apparel, ornament or use, also my library books, pictures, silverware, glassware, chinaware, furniture, provisions, utensils, and all other articles of household use or ornament.

"6. The residue of my estate, then remaining, I hereby dispose of in manner following, to wit:

"A. One-third of said residue I give, devise and bequeath to my said son, John W. Watling.

"B. One-third of said residue I give, devise and bequeath to the said John W. Watling and William F. McCorkle, in trust, however, for the following uses and purposes:

"The said trustees shall take possession of the trust estate hereby given them and shall have the full control, management and care thereof, shall invest and reinvest the same, shall collect the income, issues and profits thereof, out of the same pay all the expenses incident to the care of the said trust estate, and pay over the remainder of such income to my wife, Eunice W. Watling, in quarterly payments, during the remainder of her natural life.

"At the death of my said wife, the trust estate herein created for her benefit shall be divided into two equal parts, one of which I give, devise and bequeath to my said son, John W. Watling, if then living, if not to his issue, then surviving, if any, if there be none, the same shall become a part of the trust hereinafter created for my daughter. The other half of said trust estate, provided for my wife, shall, at her death, be added to the trust hereinafter created for my daughter, if she be then living, if not, I give, devise and bequeath the same to my said son.

"C. One-third of said residue I give, devise and bequeath to the said John W. Watling and William F. McCorkle, in trust, however, for the following uses and purposes:

"The said trustees shall take possession of the trust estate hereby given them and shall have full control, management and care thereof, shall invest and reinvest the same, collect the income, issues and profits thereof, out of the same pay all the expenses incident to the care of said trust estate, and pay over the remainder of such income to my daughter, Lucile Watling, in quarterly payments, during the remainder of her natural life.

"At the death of my said daughter, the trust estate herein created for her benefit, shall be divided into two equal parts, one of which I give, devise and bequeath to my said son, John W. Watling, if then living, if not, to his issue then surviving, if any, if there be none, the same shall become a part of the trust hereinbefore created for my wife. The other half of said trust estate, provided for my daughter, shall at her death, be added to the trust estate hereinbefore created for my wife, if she be then living, if not, I give, devise and bequeath the same to my said son.

"7. I hereby will and direct that no bonds be required of my said trustees, and I also give to them, as such trustees, full power to sell and convey all trust estates committed to them, either real or personal, or any part thereof, without asking or obtaining license from any court for that purpose.

"8. Should my trustees hereinbefore named, at any time think it advisable to do so, they may terminate the trust hereinbefore created for the benefit of my wife, and pay over and assign to her the property, or any part thereof, held in trust by them for her benefit, to be hers absolutely and free from any claim upon the part of my said daughter or son, or the issue of my said daughter or son. And I also hereby empower my said trustees, should they in their discretion think it wise to do so at any time to pay over and transfer to my said daughter the property, or any part thereof, held by them, in trust, for the benefit of my said daughter, and in case they should do so she shall take the same for her own absolutely, free and clear of all claims on the part of my said son or my said wife, or the issue of my said son.

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name this seventh day of October, A. D. 1909.

"Signed John A. Watling."

The deceased left surviving him at his death his widow, his daughter (plaintiff herein), and his son (defendant herein) mentioned in said will, and no other heirs. In 1920, said defendant son, John W. Watling, was appointed by the probate court for Wayne county, Michigan, trustee under said will, the other person named therein as co-trustee having formally declined to act as such trustee. Shortly before the time of the making of the will, said daughter, the plaintiff herein, had been committed to, and at said time was in, a government hospital for the insane, as a mentally incompetent person, which she then was. It was the intention and desire of her father, the said testator, in making said will, that plaintiff should receive the principal of the trust estate therein created for her benefit, if, and as soon as, it should be to her best interests — that is, wise for her — that such principal should be turned over to her.

About a year after her father's death, she was released from the sanitarium to which she had previously been taken, and in April, 1922, she was formally adjudged mentally competent, and continuously since that time she has been, and now is, in sound mental and physical health and strength. In 1922, the widow of the testator died. In June, 1922, the said son of the testator, the defendant John W. Watling, submitted his resignation as trustee to the Wayne county probate court, which court accepted such resignation and, about a month later, appointed in his place as trustee the defendant Union Trust Company, such appointment being made without notice to the plaintiff herein. Said Union Trust Company is now acting as such trustee.

The bill of complaint, after alleging substantially the aforementioned facts, charges that "the paramount purpose of defendant John W. Watling at all times has been to preserve intact the corpus of the aforesaid properties in a continuing trust, so that ultimately it may come to him, or, in the event of his death, to his issue"; that "despite the express desire of the testator that the share of the plaintiff be given to her absolutely at any time an honest discretion deems it wise, defendant John W. Watling has consulted his own interest exclusively, and has endeavored by a resignation of his trust to frustrate forever the possibility of the exercise of the discretion in plaintiff's favor, although the circumstances provided for by the will not only warrant, but...