Wilmington Trust Co. v. Carpenter

• Decision Date: 01 March 1961
• Citation: 39 Del.Ch. 528,168 A.2d 306
• Parties: WILMINGTON TRUST COMPANY, a corporation of the State of Delaware, Trustee under Agreement with Walter S. Carpenter, Jr., Appellant, v. Walter S. CARPENTER, Jr., W. Samuel Carpenter, 3rd, and Clifton Center, Inc., a corporation of the State of Delaware, Appellees.
• Court: Supreme Court of Delaware

Page 306

168 A.2d 306

39 Del.Ch. 528

WILMINGTON TRUST COMPANY, a corporation of the State of Delaware, Trustee under Agreement with Walter S Carpenter, Jr., Appellant, v. Walter S. CARPENTER, Jr., W. Samuel Carpenter, 3rd, and Clifton Center, Inc., a corporation of the State of Delaware, Appellees.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

March 1, 1961.

William S. Potter, James L. Latchum and Blaine T. Phillips of Berl, Potter & Anderson, Wilmington, for appellant.

E. N. Carpenter, II, of Richards, Layton & Finger, Wilmington, and Mac Asbill, Jr., of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan, Washington, D. C., for appellees W. Samuel Carpenter, 3rd, and Clifton Center, Inc.

Before SOUTHERLAND, C. J., and WOLCOTT and BRAMHALL, JJ.

SOUTHERLAND, Chief Justice.

The case involves the constitutionality of an amendment to the spendthrift trust statute as applied to a trust created before the enactment of the amendment.

The facts are these:

By agreement dated November 21, 1941, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr., transferred to Wilmington Trust Company 75 shares of stock of Christiana Securities Company to be held subject to certain trusts specified in the trust agreement. The trust is irrevocable. The net income is payable to W. Samuel Carpenter, 3rd, during his lifetime, and upon his death the principal is payable to his issue.

The agreement contained the following spendthrift clause:

'The interest of any beneficiary hereunder, in either the income or principal of any trust hereunder, shall not be anticipated, alienated or in any other manner assigned or transferred by such beneficiary; and such interest shall be exempt from execution, attachment, distress for rent, and other legal or equitable process which may be instituted by or on behalf of any creditor or assignee of such beneficiary.'

The the time when the trust was created the validity of spendthrift trusts in Delaware had been explicitly recognized by the legislature. Act of April 6, 1933, 38 Del.L. c. 186; 12 Del.C. § 3536(a). The validity of such a trust antedating the act seems to have been impliedly recognized. Cf. Wilmington Trust Co. v. Wilmington Trust Co., 21 Del.Ch. 102, 108 A. 597.

In 1959, § 3536 was amended by adding thereto the following subsection:

'(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a), a beneficiary entitled to receive all or a part of the income of a trust shall have the right to assign gratuitously in writing, at any time or from time to time, a stated fraction or percentage of his entire remaining income interest in such trust to the State of Delaware, or to any corporation, church, community chest, fund or foundation described in Paragraph (5) of Section 1118, Title 30 of the Delaware Code, and such assignment shall be valid and binding on all parties irrespective of any restrictions on assignment contained in the instrument creating or defining the trust; provided, however, that this subsection shall not authorize a beneficiary of such a trust to reduce any part of his income interest which is subject to such restrictions on assignment below 50% of what such interest would be if no assignments were made hereunder. Any interest assigned hereunder, together with a corresponding portion of the corpus of the trust, shall be treated as a separate share and thereafter no provision of the trust permitting invasion of corpus for the benefit of the assignor shall be exercisable with respect to such share.' Act of October 1, 1959, 52 Del.L. c. 199.

Section 2 of the act provides that the amendment shall be applicable to all trusts, 'whether created before, on, or after the date of enactment of this Act.' 12 Del.C. § 3536 note.

On December 23, 1959, W. Samuel Carpenter, 3rd, the income beneficiary, executed and delivered to Clifton Center, Inc., a charitable corporation of the State of Delaware, a deed of gift irrevocably granting and assigning to Clifton Center for the duration of the donor's life an undivided ten per cent of the donor's entire beneficial interest in the trust above described. On the same day Clifton Center accepted the gift and the trustee acknowledged receipt of the assignment and of the acceptance.

On February 11, 1960, the settlor, apparently in response to an inquiry from the trustee, wrote the trustee as follows:

'Mr. Joseph W. Chinn, Jr.

President

Wilmington Trust Company

Wilmington, Delaware

'Dear Mr. Chinn:

'When I created Trust No. 3134 in 1941, I thought then and think now that I parted with all interest in the trust property, and that I had no further rights with respect to it. My acceptance of Sam's assignment on behalf of Clifton Center was solely in my capacity as president of Clifton Center, and is not to be construed as consent by me, as the grantor of this trust, to the assignment. My only desire is that the trust be administered as required by law.

'Yours sincerely,

'W. S. Carpenter, Jr.'

The trustee, being in doubt whether the amendment to the spendthrift trust statute is constitutional, filed a complaint for instructions against the settlor, the income beneficiary, and Clifton Center, Inc.

The answer of the settlor reiterates his position that, having no interest or rights in the trust, he has no right to consent or not consent. It avers in conclusion that, having no interest in the proceedings or in the trust agreement, he submits himself to the jurisdiction of the court.

The joint answer of the income beneficiary and Clifton Center, Inc., prays that the court instruct the trustee that the amendatory statute is valid and that the assignment should be complied with.

The Vice Chancellor upheld the validity of the law and instructed the trustee accordingly. The trustee appeals.

The trustee makes three contentions:

1. The settlor has not consented to any modification of the trust agreement, nor has he consented to the assignment. Consequently, the rule that the settlor and the income beneficiary of a spendthrift trust may remove a restriction upon the alienation of the income does not apply.

2. The trust agreement is a contract within the meaning of the provisions of the federal constitution forbidding impairment of the obligations of contracts by state laws. U.S.Constitution, Art. I, § 10. Coolidge v. Long, 282 U.S. 582, 51 S.Ct. 306, 75 L.Ed. 562; Fidelity Union Trust Co. v. Price, 18 N.J.Super. 578, 87 A.2d 565, 570; 11 N.J. 90, 93 A.2d 321, 35 A.L.R.2d 980. The 1959 amendment impairs the obligation of the 1941 trust agreement and its retroactive provisions are void. State v. Caldwell, 181 Tenn. 74, 178 S.W.2d 624, 151 A.L.R. 1410.

3. The 1959 amendment violates the constitutional principle, federal and state, that existing property rights may not be taken without due process of law. Amendment 14 to the federal constitution; Art. I, § 7, § 9 of the state constitution, Del.C.Ann. The settlor has an existing property right in the execution of the trust. In re Borsch's Estate, 362 Pa. 581, 67 A.2d 119; In re Moulton's Estate, 233 Minn. 286, 46 N.W.2d 667, 24 A.L.R.2d 1092.

To these contentions the income beneficiary and Clifton Center, Inc. make the following answers:

1. They concede that the settlor did not consent to the assignment.

2. But, they say, a trust is not essentially a contract, but a conveyance of property. The trustee's undertaking to administer the trust confers no contractual rights on the settlor. Restatement--Trusts, § 197; 2 Scott on Trusts, § 200.1. Unless he has reserved some rights to himself, a settlor has no standing to enforce the provisions of the trust. Restatement--Trusts, § 200. He has parted with all his interest in the trust property. He has, therefore, no contract right that is impaired by the amendatory act of 1959. Brearley School v. Ward, 201 N.Y. 358, 94 N.E. 1001, 40 L.R.A.,N.S., 1215.

3. The defendants reply that, for like reasons, a settlor has no existing property right in the enforcement of a trust that he has created. The Pennsylvania decisions, they say, are unsound. 2 Scott on Trusts, § 152.1; Griswold, Spendthrift Trusts, § 391; Brearley School v. Ward, supra. Therefore the amendatory act does not deprive him of any property.

4. Finally, say the defendants, the whole subject of restraints on alienation of property is within the control of the legislature in the exercise of the police power. A spendthrift trust provision is analogous to an exemption from execution process. No one has a constitutional right in such an exemption. Brearley School v. Ward, supra. The act is therefore a constitutional exercise of the police power.

These are the issues made by the pleadings and the briefs.

The development of these questions in the briefs of counsel ranges over a wide field. All of this discussion, and the numerous decisions cited, have their place in a broad survey of the law of spendthrift trusts.

But we think the issue before us is a much narrower one. This is not a case in which the settlor is seeking to enforce or protect any right of his (if he has any) in respect of the trust; he disclaims any interest in it. This is not a case in which a beneficiary is seeking to protect his rights in the trust income; on the contrary, he seeks to avail himself of the provisions of the statute. And, finally, this is not a case in which the trustee is defending his trust agreement against an attack which would diminish the trust property or destroy the trust. On the contrary, the trust res is unimpaired, and the only effect of the statute and the assignment of the beneficiary is to divert the payment of a portion of the income to a charity.

How, then, has the statute inflicted injury upon any party before the Court?

Let us examine the principles of law relied on by the trustee in order to determine how far, if at all, they govern the case.

First: the contention that a trust agreement constitutes a contract between the settlor and the trustee. For the sake of argument, let us assume that to be correct. Has the settlor any standing to enforce it?

The law on...