Thayer v. Thayer
Thayer v. Thayer
Opinion of the Court
The decision of the questions raised in this ease depends upon the construction to be given to the clause in the first codicil to the testator’s will, wherein he makes provision for after-born or posthumous children. As this clause and the other clauses of the codicil refer to his will, a brief recital of the provisions of the will, to which these clauses refer, :-s necessary.
When the will was made, in May 1855, the testator was a widower, having but one child, Ebenezer Francis Thayer, then in his eighteenth year. He had a large estate, and left numerous legacies to relatives and friends, and to public institutions ; and all the residue, both real and personal, he left to His brothers, Nathaniel Thayer and Christopher T. Thayer, in trust for the use and benefit of his son. The trustees, whom he also appoints as guardians, are requested to place at the disposal of his son, during his minority, the sum of six thousand dollars annually, for charitable purposes; and having given directions in regard to the use and occupation of his estates in Boston and Brookline, not necessary to recite, he orders and directs his trustees to take from the income of the trust estate what they may think necessary for the support and education of his son, and for the charitable purposes above named, and for the repairs and other expenses upon his houses and buildings, and for the labor upon his estate in Brookline, and for all taxes and other expenses, a sum not exceeding fifty thousand dollars in any one year, and all the income not needed for these objects to be added to the principal and duly invested, until his son attains his majority. If he should die before reaching the age of twenty-one years, then all the estate so held in trust the testator gives to his brother, Nathaniel Thayer, absolutely. But if the son attains his majority, one half the trust estate and one half the accumulations thereon during his minority are to be paid over to him absolutely, the
The scheme of the testator in providing for his son is simple and plain, though the order in which the provisions are stated is somewhat confused. He intended that during his son’s minority a certain sum should be placed in his hands for charitable purposes; that such sum as the trustees deemed proper should be devoted to his support and education; that the estates in Brookline and Boston, which were to be his son’s, should be suitably maintained; and that the rest of the income remaining each year should be added to the trust fund, until he reached the age of twenty-one years. The attainment of his majority marked a period in the trust, when a change was to take place in the management of the fund, and a large amount of money was to be paid to the eestui que trust. The accumulations were then to cease. One half the whole trust fund was to be the. son’s absolutely, to use and dispose of at his pleasure; the other half to remain in trust, he to receive the income during life, and at his death the principal to go to his children, with a limited power in him to point out by will to whom among his children or issue it should be paid over.
While the testator thus intended that his son should have a large estate absolutely within his control, if he attained twenty-one years of age, and an ample income from a trust fund, with remainder to his children, he in substance says : “ But if my son should die before he is twenty-one, I prefer that all the property should descend to my brother, Nathaniel Thayer, rather than to the heirs at law of my son; and if he should die after he is twenty-one, leaving no issue, I also prefer that all the trust fund, not given to my son absolutely, shall go to my brother Nathaniel Thayer, and not to the heirs at law of my son.” The testator does not seem to have contemplated the possibility of his son marrying, having issue, and dying before reaching the age of twenty-one years.
By the codicil to his will, which was made on September 25 of the same year, it appears that his situation had changed, and
He then makes the following provision for children that may be born of his intended marriage: “ In case I shall leave any child or children, or posthumous child, born of said Cornelia Adeline, then and in such case I give to each and every such child the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the same to be held in trust by my brother, Nathaniel Thayer, untij such child attains the age of twenty-one years, and if daughter or daughters, the same is to be held in trust so long as they shall live, and the income only to be paid to them for their own sole and separate use, and if son or sons, one half, with the accumulated income, to be paid over to them, and the other half to be held in trust, on the same terms as the property I have left my son, Ebenezer Francis Thayer, in my will.”
The plaintiff, a daughter of the testator, and only child of the second marriage, born after his decease, having arrived at the age of twenty-one years, brings this bill against the defendant, who holds the fund of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, given to him in trust for her benefit under this clause, together with the accumulations thereon during her minority; and she contends that the income was payable to her as it accrued during her minority, and was not to become a part of the principal fund, and she is now entitled to receive it. She also
The defendant, on his part, contends that he holds the fund for the benefit of the plaintiff upon the same terms as the will declared the property should be held, which the testator left to trustees for the benefit of his son Ebenezer Francis Thayer; that the accumulations during her minority have become a part of the trust fund; that it is his duty under this provision of the codicil to pay over to her for life the income of the fund, as it now stands, and upon her decease to divide the sum equally among her children, or among such of her issue as she may by will direct.
It is to be observed that the concluding words of the clause of the codicil, providing for posthumous children, viz. “ on the same terms as the property I have left my son, Ebenezer Francis Thayer, in my will,” clearly refer to the provisions contained in the residuary clause of the will, which establish a trust for the benefit of his living son, and these provisions are thus made by reference a part of the codicil. They are also directly connected with, and are manifestly intended to refer to some, if not to all, of the provisions which precede them, establishing trusts in the hands of Nathaniel Thayer for the benefit of the children by the intended marriage. Whether they refer to the trusts previously declared for sons, or for daughters, or for both, to whatever trusts they refer, Nathaniel Thayer is to hold such trusts, upon the same terms, and is to execute and administer them in all essential particulars as the trust for the benefit of Ebenezer Francis Thayer is to be held and administered. That these words apply to the trust created under this clause, for every son or posthumous son, we cannot doubt, because, omitting the provision as to daughters, the clause would then read, after naming the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, “ to be held in trust by my brother Nathaniel Thayer, until such child attains the age of twenty-one years .... and if son or sons, one half, with the accumulated income, to be paid over to them, and the other half to be held in trust on the
What the testator intended is to be ascertained, if possible, from the language he has used in this clause, and if it is clear that he did not intend the concluding words to apply to the gift to daughters, that intention cannot be controlled or modified by the intentions expressed in other parts of the will or codicil in regard to the management or final disposition of the trust fund created in the residuary clause of the will. On the other hand, if it is clear, from the language used in the clause itself, explained by the reference to the will, that he did intend to put daughters on the same footing as sons in all respects, except that they should not have half of the trust fund absolutely at twenty-one years of age, we have no occasion to seek elsewhere for his intention. But if the language is capable of two constructions, and it is doubtful which he intended, we may refer to other portions of the will and codicil to determine the true construction and ascertain his intention. Lassence v. Tierney, 1 Macn. & Gord. 551. Cummings v. Bramhall, 120 Mass. 552. Loring v. Sumner, 23 Pick. 98, 103. Metcalf v. Framingham Parish, 128 Mass. 370.
Taking the whole clause by itself, in connection with that part only of the will to which it refers, a majority of the court is of opinion that the concluding words above quoted comprehend and attach themselves to each preceding provision, and that the trusts for daughters and for sons are to be held by the trustee on the same terms as the trust for Ebenezer Francis Thayer, excepting that the daughters are not to receive one half of the principal on arriving at twenty-one years of age.
It is not denied by the plaintiff that the provision, “ until such child attains the age of twenty-oné years,” applies to sons, because it is conceded that the terms of the trust for Ebenezer Francis Thayer apply to after-born sons ; but, although daughters are equally and indeed expressly included within its provisions, it is denied that it applies to them, because it cannot change or modify the subsequent provision, that the trust for daughters is to continue as long as they shall live, and must therefore be rejected. But the construction we give to the provision rejects no words of the testator, but gives to all an intelligent meaning, which bears directly upon the terms of the trusts made for the benefit of any future child.
If the testator intended that the trusts created under this clause of the codicil, for sons and daughters alike till twenty-one years of age, should be held on the same terms as the trust for his son created in the will, the conclusion would seem to follow that, in extending these trusts beyond the age of twenty-one, he also intended to extend them upon the same terms. And this intention is manifested in the language that he uses. Having declared trusts for both sons and daughters until they reach the age of twenty-one years, he now intends to extend these trusts beyond the period of majority, and to make a distinction between sons and daughters, and he does it in these words: “ And if daughter or daughters, the same is to be held in trust so long as they shall live, and the income only to be paid to them for theh own sole and separate use, and if son or sons, one half with the accumulated income to be paid over to them and the other half to be held in trust on the same terms as the property I have left my son Ebenezer Francis Thayer in my will.” The whole of this portion of the codicil, which makes different provisions for sons and daughters, must be considered in ascertaining the intention of the testator as to each. He is still dealing with the trusts, which he has previously declared for daughters as well as for sons, and he has regard
The construction for which the plaintiff contends rejects the words, “until such child attains the age of twenty-one years,” because they can have no effect to modify the provision for daughters, which immediately follows, and declares that the sum to be held in trust for daughters shall remain in trust during their lives. But for reasons already given these words cannot be thus rejected, but have an intelligent meaning, and aid in disclosing the intent of the testator. Upon the same construction we should be forced to the conclusion, that the testator, while he intended that a trust should be established
It further assumes that the testator, while making, not only in his will, but by reference in this very clause of the codicil, the most precise directions as to the disposition of the principal of the shares of any and all sons, has left the disposition of the principal of the share of a daughter to a mere implication from the gift to her of the income for life, or to an inference of intention from the use of the general words giving the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which words apply equally to sons and to daughters, and which, so far as they apply to sons, are clearly not to have an unqualified effect. And the result is to give to a daughter the absolute title and unlimited power of disposition of the whole principal of her share, while the testator gives such title and power to any son in only one half of his.
Nor is there any difficulty in executing and carrying out, in all essential particulars, the trusts thus created for both daughters and sons, in the same terms as the trust for his son set forth in the will. The provisions, as to the maintenance of the two estates in Boston and Brookline, which were by the will to belong to the son, and as to the sum for charity which was personal to him, have no application to the trusts created in the codicil for daughters or sons of the second marriage. But the trustee could properly devote such portion of the income as was needed for the education and support of a daughter during minority, as well as of a son, and add what remained to the principal. And, instead of paying over to the daughter one half of the principal on attaining the age of twenty-one* the trustee should retain the whole fund with its accumulations,
Bill dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Adele G. Thayer v. Nathaniel Thayer, trustee
- Status
- Published