Pleasonton's Estate
Pleasonton's Estate
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Under the will of Elizabeth Pleasonton, deceased, probated August 6, 1894, the Pennsylvania Company for Insurances on Lives and Granting Annuities, the appellee here, received the sum of $20,000 upon the following trust, “To invest and keep the same invested and receive the interest and income thereof and apply the same, or so much thereof as shall be needed, for the support, maintenance and education of my great niece, Elizabeth Hoge Pleasonton, until her age of twenty-one years or marriage whichever shall first happen; and from and after her full age aforesaid, or marriage, to apply the net income for her sole and separate use, without the control or interference of any husband whom she may marry, and so that she shall not have power to dispose thereof by anticipation.” A power in said Elizabeth Hoge Pleasonton to dispose of the said principal sum by testamentary act follows, a power which she exercised in full accordance with the directions of the trust. This circumstance does not enter into the present controversy, and we have quoted from the will only what is here pertinent. On the petition of the father of Elizabeth Hoge Pleasonton, who was then twelve years of age, the court appointed J. M. Stone, Jr., guardian of the minor’s person and estate. On September 25, 1905, the minor having several months before arrived at full age, the guardian filed a final account of his guardianship, in which he debited himself with the entire income received from the $20,000 trust fund in the hands
But, it is said, the trustee has been derelict in its duty in failing to exercise its own judgment and discretion in expending the money, and committing this duty absolutely to the guardian. The answer to this is, conceding it to be true, if harm or loss has resulted, it is due to the silence and acquiescence of appellant when she should have spoken and resisted. She had her day-in court when these matters of expenditure were being adjudicated. That adjudication is a judicial finding that no harm or loss did result from the particular expenditures here complained of. We quite agree that it was the bounden duty of the appellee, under the terms of this trust, to study for itself the conditions calling for the expenditure of the money, and to acquaint itself with the situation of the cestui que trust, so as to be able to exercise a sound discretion in the matter of disbursement. The confidence reposed was in the judgment and discretion of the trustee, and not in that of an unnamed guardian. Apparently the trustee wholly neglected this duty and committed it to the guardian. While no actual loss because of this is shown, it was nevertheless such a plain and manifest dereliction of duty, that had a forfeiture of right to commissions been decreed on this account, the appellee would have had little reason to complain. The allowance of commissions to the trustee is however not assigned for error, and since it is not complained of, we shall not interfere. In what we have said above all the assignments of error have been considered; they are overruled, and the decree of the court is affirmed, the costs on the appeal to be paid by the appellee.
Reference
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- Decedents’ estates — Trusts and trustees — Guardians—Practice, O. C.— Finality of adjudications — Collateral proceeding. 1. A decree of the orphans’ court confirming an account is, in all cases, conclusive of the matters contained in it, when attempted to be drawn in controversy in a collateral action. 2. Where, under the will of a testator, a fiduciary institution receives a sum of money upon trust “to invest and keep the same invested and receive the interest and income thereof and apply the same, or so much thereof as shall be needed, for the support, maintenance and education” of testator’s niece until her age of twenty-one years or marriage, whichever shall first happen; and from and after her full age aforesaid, or marriage, to apply the net income for her sole and separate use, without the control or interference of any husband whom she may marry, and so that she shall not have power to dispose thereof by anticipation,” and after testator’s death a guardian is appointed for the niece upon petition of her father, and several months after the niece arrives at majority the guardian files a final account of his guardianship, in which he debits himself with the entire income derived from the trust fund which the fiduciary company had paid over to him at regular stated periods, the account including nothing besides and claiming credits for sums expended for the support, maintenance and education of the ward, and a cash balance shown in the account as due the ward is duly paid over upon final confirmation, and it appears that in the adjudication proceeding, on this account, the ward was duly represented by counsel and was herself personally present and the account was confirmed without exceptions having been filed thereto, the ward has no standing in court, upon a later adjudication of the account of the fiduciary company as trustee under the will of testator, to object to the fiduciary company taking credit for payment of income from the trust fund to the guardian of the cestui que trust, embracing the same items with which the guardian had debited himself in his final account.