Matteson v. Brown
Matteson v. Brown
Opinion of the Court
This is a bill in equity brought by the trustees under the will of Harold Brown, the executor of the will of Sophia Augusta Brown, and the administrator de bonis non with the will of said Harold Brown annexed, for instruction, which prayer involves the construction of certain clauses of said will of Harold Brown.
Said will was executed October 16th, 1899. The testator died on May 10th, 1900; and said will was finally proved before the Probate Court of Newport on June 18th, 1900.
By the second clause of said will the testator bequeathed to his wife, Georgette Brown, for her absolute use, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and, with some slight reservations, all works of art, household furniture, horses, carriages and like effects by him possessed, together with certain other pieces of personal property.
*342 By the third clause of said will the testator devised and bequeathed his Mansion House Estate in Newport, his undivided one-half of land situated in Newport called the Stable Estate, another tract of land situated in Newport, his four shares of the stock of the Spouting Rock Beach Association in Newport and his bath-houses on said beach, to certain trustees in trust, among other matters, to permit the testator’s wife, the defendant Georgette Brown, to have the use and occupation of the same, free of rent therefor, during her life, and, in case of lease or sale of the same, or of any part thereof, to pay over, in case of lease, the entire rents, and in case of sale, the entire income arising from the proceeds of sale, to her, for her absolute use.
The testator further bequeathed a number of pecuniary and specific legacies; and by the nineteenth clause of said will devised and bequeathed his residuary estate, real and personal, to certain trustees in trust, the provisions of which trust materially vary in dependence upon the circumstances of there being or not being a child, children or more remote issue of the testator living at his death.
In the event thát there should be issue of the testator living at the time of his death, it is provided, first, that the trustees shall .set apart from the rest of what the testator' terms his residuary personal estate, the shares of stock owned by him, at the time of his death, in the capital stock of the Lonsdale, the Hope, the Blackstone Manufacturing and the Berkeley Companies; Second, that the said trustees shall hold one-fourth part of the remaining portion of his residuary personal estate in trust to pay over the net income therefrom to the testator’s wife until her death or marriage; and third, that, after the death or marriage of said wife as to this one-fourth part of his remaining residuary personal estate, and, after the testator’s death, as to all the remaining residuary estate, real and personal, including shares of stock in the four manufacturing companies aforesaid, the said trustees shall stand seized and possessed of the same to the use of the testator’s issue, who shall in the testator’s life *343 time or after attain the age of twenty-one years or marry under that age.
In the event that there be no issue of the testator living at-the time of his death, the provisions of the trust, among other things, are: first, that the trustees shall “forthwith transfer and convey” the shares of stock in the four manufacturing companies aforesaid to the testator’s brother, John Nicholas Brown, if then living, for his own use forever. If the said John Nicholas Brown should not be living at the time of the testator’s death then the trustees shall “forthwith transfer and convey” said shares of stock to the issue of the said John Nicholas Brown; second, that the trustees shall stand seized of the testator’s residuary real estate to the use of the testator’s brother, John Nicholas Brown, if he be living at the time of the death of the testator and to the use of his heirs forever. If the said John Nicholas Brown should not be living at the time' of the testator’s death, then said trustees to stand seized of said residuary real estate to the use of the child, children or more remote issue of the said John Nicholas Brown; third, the trustees shall stand seized of the remaining parts of the testator’s residuary personal estate in trust to assign, transfer and pay over, one-quarter part to the testator’s mother, Sophia Augusta Brown, for her own absolute use forever; fourth, to assign, transfer and pay over, one other quarter part to his brother, John Nicholas Brown, if he be living at the time of the testator’s death, to his own absolute use forever; if the said John Nicholas Brown, should not be living at the time of the testator’s death, then the said trustees to assign, transfer and pay over said one quarter part to the child, children or more remote issue of the said John Nicholas Brown; fifth, to hold one other quarter part in trust to pay over the net income arising therefrom to the testator’s wife until her death or marriage, in the same manner as was provided in the event of the testator leaving issue at the time of his death; sixth, to hold the remaining one-quarter part in trust to pay over the net income arising therefrom to the testator’s sister, Sophia Augusta Sherman, for and during her *344 natural life, and upon her death the trustees to stand seized and possessed of said one-quarter part for the use of the issue of said Sophia Augusta Sherman.
The testator died a young man, within a few months after the execution of this will, without ever having had issue. The testator’s brother, John Nicholas Brown, deceased in the testator’s lifetime, leaving John Nicholas Brown, Jr., a minor, his only child and issue him surviving.
By the twentieth clause of his will, the testator, among other things, provided as follows: “ ... And my said Trustees shall collect the income, dividends and profits accruing and arising from the said residuary estate, and said trust properties, estate and premises respectively, and the investments and reinvestments of the same, and shall pay therefrom all taxes, assessments, insurance premiums, repairs and all other expenses incurred in the care and management of said trust estate, and also all upon or in respect of my homestead and other estate hereinbefore by the third clause of this will devised in' trust for my wife, and including their own reasonable compensation for services under the several trusts aforesaid.”
After the probate of said will the executors following what they considered to be the direction to them contained in the will, transferred the shares of stock in the four manufacturing companies aforesaid to said John Nicholas Brown, Jr., and paid over and transferred to him and to Sophia Augusta Brown, the mother of the testator, to each respectively, one-fourth of the testator’s residuary personal estate remaining in the hands of the executors after transferring the said shares of stock to John Nicholas Brown, Jr., as aforesaid, and transferred one other one-fourth part of the said remaining residuary personal estate to the trustees under said will in trust for the widow of Harold Brown, for her life with remainder as in said will declared, and transferred the remaining fourth part of said remaining residuary personal estate to the trustees under said will in trust for the said Sophia Augusta Sherman, the sister of the testator, *345 with remainder as in said will declared; and further, believing that the legal title of the testator’s residuary real •estate vested at once in said John Nicholas Brown, Jr., by the statute of uses, the said trustees have never collected any of the rents or income from or otherwise exercised any control over the said residuary real estate of said Harold Brown, but said trustees have permitted the rents and income of said real estate to be collected by the guardian of the estate -of said John Nicholas Brown, Jr. The said trustees, under the will of Harold Brown, have, therefore, in their hands and under their control only the said two-fourth parts of the testator’s residuary personal estate remaining after transferring said shares of stock to John Nicholas Brown, Jr., ns aforesaid, and, in accordance with what they understand to be the direction of the twentieth clause of said will, they have paid from the income of these two-fourth parts of the testator’s remaining residuary personal estate in their hands all the taxes, assessments, insurance premiums, repairs and all other expenses incurred in the care and management of and upon or in respect of the homestead and other estates given by the third clause of said will in trust for the benefit of the testator’s wife.
It is contended by the respondents Sophia Augusta Sherman and Georgette Brown that the said executors should not have transferred the said shares of stock in the four manufacturing companies to the said John Nicholas Brown, Jr., and should not have conveyed the said two-fourth parts of the testator’s remaining residuary personal estate to said Sophia Augusta Brown and the said John Nicholas Brown, Jr., without having first provided that said residuary estate so transferred and conveyed to said Sophia Augusta Brown and John Nicholas Brown, Jr., should contribute its pro rata share of the taxes and other expenditures for the benefit of said homestead estate, so that the said taxes and ■expenditures should be a charge upon the income of the entire residuary estate of the testator and the entire burden of said taxes and expenditures should not be thrown upon *346 the income from the two-fourths parts of said remaining residuary personal estate of the testator now in the hands of said trustees; and that the said trustees should not have permitted and should not now continue to permit the said John Nicholas Brown, Jr., to receive, the income of the testator’s residuary real estate without contributing to the taxes and expenditures for the maintenance of said homestead estates. It is in regard to the questions raised by these claims of the said respondents, Sophia Augusta Sherman and Georgette Brown, that the complainants ask for a construction of the nineteenth and twentieth clauses of said will, so far as relates to said questions, and for instruction as to their duty in the premises.
In the circumstances surrounding this estate, as they existed at the time of the testator’s death, to support the claim that it was the testator’s intention, as shown by the will, to charge the income of the entire residuary estate with the payment of the taxes and expenses of the homestead estate, such intention must be found clearly expressed in the will or such intention must appear by necessary implication from an examination of the will as a whole. The respondents contend that the twentieth clause provides in express terms for the payment of said taxes and expenses from the income of the entire residuary estate; and find such express provision in the following language of said twentieth clause: “And my said trustees shall collect the income, dividends and profits accruing and arising from the said residuary estate, and said trust properties, estates and premises respectively, and the investments and reinvestments of the same, and shall pay therefrom all taxes, assessments, insurance premiums, repairs and all other expenses incurred in the care and management of said trust estate, and also all upon or in respect of my homestead and other estates hereinbefore by the third clause of this will devised in trust for my wife, and including their own reasonable compensation for services under the several trusts aforesaid.” This language is not free from doubt and considered without reference to *347 the other provisions of the will furnishes some support for’ the respondents’ contention. The respondents argue that the words “and trust properties, estates and premises-respectively” are added simply to amplify the expression “residuary estate” in order to show what the testator means to include in his residuary estate, the income from which is to be collected by the trustees. It can pertinently be replied to this argument that by the nineteenth clause the testator has very clearly defined his residuary estate; and these added words do not tend to make clearer what the testator meant by his residuary estate, or to express more clearly the intention, if such he had, that the trustees-should collect the income of the entire residuary estate in all circumstances; but rather tend to raise a doubt as to what was the testator’s intention in that regard; and in themselves give some basis for the conclusion that the testator contemplated two possibilities, one in which the income of the whole residuary estate and another in which the income of only some portion thereof, retained by the trustees, should “respectively” bear the burden of this charge. But it is not from a consideration of this language alone, but by an examination of the provisions of the whole will that the intention of the testator is to be found.
The respondents claim that it is a necessary implication from the will as a whole that the testator did not intend the expenses of the homestead estate to be paid solely from the income of the two-fourth parts of the remaining residuary personal estate now held by the trustees.
The testator contemplated the possibility of just the circumstances which developed, namely, that he should die without issue surviving him; and that the direction to forthwith transfer and convey the said shares of stock would become operative at once. If the testator had wished that the said shares of stock or the income thereof should be charged with the payment of a portion of the homestead expenses he could easily have so provided in express terms; and if such was his intention it is unlikely that he would by inadvertence have omitted a provision so- obviously important.
*350
The respondents consider the authority of Fisher, Petitioner, 19 R. I. 53, and Barstow v. Thomas, 20 R. I. 561, as most important to their case and argue that the doctrine there involved is clearly applicable to the facts of the suit at bar. In Fisher, Petitioner, 19 R. I. 53, a testator devised to his widow a lot of land with the buildings thereon “for and during her natural life, and the expenses of keeping the same in repairs, together with taxes, shall be paid out of my estate by. my executors hereinafter named.” He further devised and bequeathed to his wife “the income arising from one undivided quarter part of all my estate . . . until my youngest son then living shall have-attained the age of forty years.” He then provided that “at the expiration of said time” the property be divided into four equal parts and distributed to his wife and three sons. He made no provision for the continued payment by his executors of the homestead expenses after the distribution. This court, in holding the provision for payment of expenses a charge upon the whole of the. estate in the hands of the executors, says that it is a reasonable presumption that “the omission to except from the division of his property so much as should be necessary to provide for *353 repairs and taxes on the Lockwood street estate was inadvertent,” and that therefore the fourth clause requiring distribution “should be modified to this extent, and that so much of the personal estate as shall be required to enable the administrator to pay the expenses for keeping the Lockwood street estate in repair and the taxes assessed against the same, as provided in the second clause, shall remain undivided in the hands of the administrator, to be held by him for such payment.”
*354
We are of the opinion that the transfer of the stock in the four manufacturing companies aforesaid to John Nicholas Brown, Jr., and the transfer of the two-fourths part of the remaining residuary personal estate to Sophia Augusta Brown and to John Nicholas Brown, Jr., was in accordance with the direction of the will; that the action of the trustees in permitting the guardian of the estate of John Nicholas Brown, Jr., to collect the rents and income of the residuary real estate was proper; and that the taxes and expenditures ■upon or in respect of the testator’s homestead and other ■estates by the third clause of his will devised in trust for his wife are properly payable from the income of. so much of *356 the residuary personal estate only as was transferred to and came under the control of the trustees of said will.
A decree may be presented to this court in accordance with the above opinion.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Frank W. Matteson, Admr. Et Al. v. John Nicholas Brown, Et Al.
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published