Buchar's Estate
Buchar's Estate
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The rights of these parties in the court below depended upon a question of fact which the auditor and the court found against the appellant. There was ample evidence to warrant the finding and hence we will not disturb it.
The testator bequeathed and devised one-third of the residue of his estate “unto my son, Charles E. Buchar, at such time and when my executors, or survivors of them shall decide that in their judgment he is competent morally to have control of the same.” It is quite true, as argued by the appellant, that the court will not interfere with the discretion placed in the executor and trustee without clear and adequate cause. The reason of the rule is that the testator has a right to dispose of his property as he pleases, and he may subject all or any part of it to the discretion of his executor or trustee. This discretion, properly exercised, will not be interfered with by the courts. The presumptions are all in favor of the honest exercise of the discretion, and fraud or collusion will not be presumed.
There are, however, occasions when the court will interfere and protect the interests of the beneficiary. This will be done when the executor or trustee is actuated by improper or selfish motives, or his discretion is not exercised in good faith but arbitrarily and to further his own personal interests. If the trustee does not honestly exercise discretion, or his selfishness rather than the desire of the testator has become the rule of appropriation, the court will interfere: Pulpress v. African M. E. Church, 48 Pa. 204. The discretion of the trustee is but a legal one, and whenever the law determines that a proper case has arisen in which the trustee’s discretion should have been exercised in a particular way, he will be constrained to act in accordance therewith: Erisman v. Directors of the Poor, 47 Pa. 509; Stewart v. Madden, 153 Pa. 445; Severns’s Est., 211 Pa. 68.
Charles E. Buchar, the beneficiary, contends that the executrix was not exercising her discretion, but was abusing it on account of the ill feeling that she bore to him; that he was of good moral character; and that he had amassed and is
We think it apparent that the testator’s desire was to protect Charles and his estate against the effects of excessive
The assignments of error are overruled, and the decree of the court below is affirmed.
Reference
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Executors and administrators — Discretion—Fraud—Will. Where a testator by his will gives a portion of his estate to his son “at such time and when my executors, or the survivors of them shall decide that in their judgment he is competent morally to have control of the same,” the court will not interfere with the discretion placed in the executor without clear and adequate cause, but it will interfere and direct possession be given to the son where an auditor finds from competent and sufficient testimony that the son was of business capacity, competent to accumulate and take care of his property, that the executrix, his sister, was very hostile to him and that by retaining possession of the estate until her brother’s death without issue, she would be entitled to half of it absolutely.