Rice v. Thompson
Rice v. Thompson
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Á fund of $3,500 in amount, was held in trust by a trustee for the joint benefit of J ane Lightfoot and her infant daughter, Martha Ann Lightfoot, during their joint lives, and upon the death of either, for the benefit of the survivor: "And in case said Martha Ann should die unmarried, and under the age of twenty-one years, then her interest, aforesaid, is to vest in said trustee absolutely, if living, and if not, then to his children and their descendants.” This trust estate wa3 created by deed duly recorded and dated, July 16, 1834. G. E. Lightfoot was the grantor, and John G. Martin, the trustee. Shortly after this deed was executed, in 1836 or 7, Jane Lightfoot, the mother, died, Martha Ann the daughter surviving, she thus, as survivor, becoming the sole beneficiary under the deed. In 1846 Martha Ann intermarried with John H. Rice, by whom she had two children, John and Henry Ann Rice; in 1847, J. H. Rice and Martha Ann, his wife, she being then under twenty-one years of age, and the trustee, John G. Martin, having previously died, applied by petition, to the judge of the Bourbon circuit court, in strict pursuance of a special provision in the deed of trust, for the appointment of a trustee to succeed the said John G. Martin deceased, and the court, by a decretal order, expressly at the instance and in answer to the prayer of the petition of J. H. Rice the husband, as well as the wife, appoints J. G. Martin, jr. as the successor of the deceased trustee, to take the fund and to hold it in trust for the benefit of Martha. Ann Rice, according to the deed* And after-wards, in April, 1848, on the motion of the said husband and wife, by order of the Bourbon circuit court, William Thompson ia appointed trustee for Martha Ann Ríce, “under the provisions of the agreement or deed of trust between G. E. Lightfoot and Jane, his wife, and J. G. Martin, recorded in the clerk’s office of the Bourbon county court, and bearing date 16th July, 1834.” Under this appointment the trust fund was placed in the hands of William Thompson,
And on the other hand, if the interest of Martha Ann Rice — afterwards Taylor — in the fund was such as that upon her death, it would survive to the second husband, then either as survivor, administrator, or distributee of the deceased wife he is entitled to the fund, and in such case it cannot pass to her children by her first husband, or to his personal representafives.
It is contended, on behalf of tho representatives and heirs of J. H. Rice, deceased, that a legal appropriation of this fund, and its reduction to a constructive possession, resulted and was the legal effect of this intermarriage with Martha Ann Lightfoot, and of her arrival at the age of twenty-one years, because by the terms of the deed of trust the limitation over to the trustee himself, or to his heirs, could never take effect after she married, and after she attained the age of twenty-one' years; and as both contingencies occurred before the death of the first husband, that the right of the wife became absolute, and that the limitation, over to Martin or his heirs was defeated and destroyed, and that the absolute right and interest of the wife, by operation of law, vested in the husband, and the possession of the fund by the trustee not being adverse to his right or title was substantially the possession of the husband, and that the trustee was the mere agent of the husband, and bound to pa]" over the fund to him during his life, and to his representatives after his death. That this view is upheld and strengthened from tha fact, that during his lifetime the trustee paid over the interest accruing on this fund to the first husband, which, it is insisted, amounted to a constructive appropriation of the fund. It is urged, also, that after the cestui que trust married and became an adult, the trust itself ceased to exist, and -ho became, invested instantly, upon the happening of those contingencies, with both the equitable and legal right to the fund, inasmuch as then it could never go over to the trustee or his heirs; and as a continuance of the trust, and of the legal right and authority of tho trustee thereafter was not necessary, they ceased, and were not intended by the parties, longer to exist.
It is true that tbe equitable interest of Martha Ami Lightfoot, as ccslui gus-trust, in the fund was converted from a contingent to an absolute fee simple estate therein, upon the occurrence of the specified events named in the deed, yet it does not follow that the
The fund thus surviving to the wife was hers at the time of her second marriage, and the second husband, who is the present complainant, having survived the
The decree must be affirmed.
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