TRUSTS - HONORARY TRUST - AUTHORITY OF A SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE

Authors

Reed T. Phalan, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

Paragraph 24 of testatrix' will gave to the executor and trustee, appointed under the will, $10,000 ''to be used by him to place a memorial window, or some other memorials, to cost any sum in his discretion up to the sum of One thousand Dollars, in Christ Church Cathedral, at St. Louis, Mo., and to place monuments and markers in my family subdivision of the Clark and Glasgow plot in the Bellefontaine Cemetery, at St. Louis, Mo." Soon after testatrix' death the trustee died. A successor trustee was appointed and by special order of the court was authorized to administer the trust created by paragraph 24. He spent $1000 for a church memorial window and $1732.60 for monuments. From the income of the remainder he paid premiums for insurance on a statue in the above named plot and made certain other expenditures. The successor trustee having died, residuary legatees now object to certain of the expenditures from the income, claiming that while the successor trustee could properly administer the trust, it terminated after he had selected and purchased the monuments. Held, a successor trustee could not be empowered by a court to make the expenditures designated by paragraph 24. Since no complaint was made to the expenditures for the memorial window and monuments but only to expenditures of income of the balance on hand, certain of those expenditures were surcharged against the account of the deceased successor trustee, including the amount for the insurance premiums on the statue. Estate of Julia Voorhis, (N. Y. Surr. Ct. 1941) 27 N. Y. S. (2d) 818.

Recommended Citation

Reed T. Phalan, TRUSTS - HONORARY TRUST - AUTHORITY OF A SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE, 40 Mich. L. Rev. 326 (1941).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol40/iss2/25