Gitt's Estate
Gitt's Estate
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The official function of an executor is not to hold money but to distribute it. If he is to hold it at all, he must do so as trustee and by virtue of some direction or intent of the testator. In the present case there is no such intent manifested. On the contrary the implication is strongly to the contrary. The testator divided the share of his deceased son into three parts, one to be paid to his grandson Jesse when he arrives at twenty-one, one to his granddaughter Elizabeth to be paid when she arrives at twenty-one, and the “ remaining one-third part of said share shall be held by my executors ” charged on lands devised to them, and “ the interest to be paid by them to Emma K. Gitt, widow of my son,” etc. And as to this portion he further directed that the executors might at any time pay it to “ some reliable trust company,” and be discharged from further liability. Here is the division of a specified share of his estate into three parts, all to-be paid in the future, with the creation of an express trust as to one part and no similar direction as to the other two. The inference is irresistible that as to those two no trust was contemplated or intended.
Decree affirmed.
Reference
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- Executors and administrators — Guardian and ward — Trust and trustees. The official function of an executor is not to hold money but to distribute it. If he is to hold it at all he must do so as trustee and by virtue of some direction or intent of the testator. Where a testator gives legacies to his grandchildren and directs that their shares shall be paid to the legatees as they severally reach the age of twenty-one years, and there are no other directions as to the legacies, the executors are not entitled to hold the legacies until the legatees reach the age of twenty-one years, but it is their duty to pay the legacies over to the guardian of the grandchildren.