Yaffe v. Lappin
| Citation | 324 Mass. 254,85 N.E.2d 770 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
| Decision Date | 27 April 1949 |
| Parties | HYMAN YAFFE & another, trustees, v. FLORA D. LAPPIN. |
December 8, 28 1948.
Present: QUA, C.
J., RONAN, WILKINS SPALDING, & WILLIAMS, JJ.
Housing. Price Control.
Landlord and Tenant, Federal control, Termination of tenancy. Trust Family trust, Rental of real estate.
The trustees under an irrevocable declaration of trust for the benefit of the wife and children of the settlor, who was one of the trustees, were entitled as landlords under Section 209 (a) (2) of the Federal housing and rent act of 1947, as amended to recover possession of a rented dwelling subject to the act where it appeared that the trustees, acting in good faith, sought it for the immediate and personal use and occupancy of the trustee-settlor and his family and that the trust was in essence a family trust and gave the trustees all the powers in connection with the trust property which an absolute owner would have.
SUMMARY PROCESS. Writ in the Municipal Court of Brookline dated April 2, 1948.
On appeal to the Superior Court the case was heard by Cahill, J. A. J. Dimond, for the defendant.
L. Poretsky, for the plaintiffs.
This is an action of summary process to recover possession of an apartment in Brookline. In the District Court there was a finding for the plaintiffs, and the defendant appealed to the Superior Court. In that court the case was tried to a judge without a jury and there was a finding for the plaintiffs for possession.
The facts, which are not in dispute, are these. The premises of which possession is sought were occupied by the defendant as a tenant of the plaintiffs and are "`controlled housing accommodations' with respect to which a maximum rent is in effect within a `defense rental area,' all as defined in the Federal housing and rent act of 1947, as amended." A proper notice of termination of the tenancy was served on the defendant. The defendant has refused to vacate the premises and has "tendered all rent to date to the plaintiffs, but the termination notice has not been waived and no new tenancy . . . [has been] established." Hyman Yaffe, one of the plaintiffs, sought possession of the premises "for the immediate and personal use and occupation of himself and his family . . . as housing accommodations." The premises were owned by the plaintiffs Yaffe and Alpert as trustees under an irrevocable declaration of trust dated December 30, 1935. Yaffe was the settlor of the trust and the beneficiaries were Lena, Marilyn and Wallace Yaffe. Lena is the settlor's wife, and, as the defendant in effect concedes, Marilyn and Wallace are his children. The powers given to the trustees under the trust instrument were very broad and included "all the powers which an absolute owner would have in his own right, in connection with the trust property or any part thereof" (article 3). The power to invade principal if necessary to provide for the proper support and maintenance of the beneficiaries was also given to the trustees (articles 4 and 7). Yaffe, the settlor-trustee, reserved to himself the right, acting alone, "to sell, mortgage, assign, transfer or convey the whole or any part of the trust estate" (article 9). He also reserved the power to reduce or increase the number of trustees (article 18).
The case is here on the defendant's exceptions to the denial of certain requests presented by her, which in effect asked the judge to rule that the plaintiffs, as matter of law, were not entitled to prevail. The requests were rightly denied.
The defendant contends that the plaintiffs, as trustees under the trust instrument discussed above, could not maintain the present proceeding for the benefit of one of the...
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