TRUSTS-CONSTRUCTION-WHETHER DEVISE OF "ANY UNDISBURSED INCOME" AFTER LIFE TENANT'S DEATH INCLUDES INCOME WHICH ACCRUED BEFORE LIFE TENANT'S DEATH

Authors

Jean Engstrom S. Ed., University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Testator's residuary estate was put in trust to pay income, dividends and profits to the testator's wife "so long as she shall live." In the same paragraph the will provided that at her death the "trustee shall stand seized and possessed of said residuary estate including any undisbursed income in trust." In a sub-paragraph the trustee was directed to "pay over the balance of said residuary estate to St. Joseph's Hospital." During her widowhood, testator's wife was in Switzerland where wartime exchange controls precluded payment of income to her under the terms of the trust. Both her administrator and the residuary legatee claimed the income accumulated and held by the trustee at the date of ber death. Held, the income in question became a part of the testator's estate and should be paid to the hospital. A will must be construed in accordance with the testator's intention as indicated by his language which in this instance is unambiguous; the ordinary literal meaning of "undisbursed income" is "not paid out," and testator intended to benefit only "the chief objects of his bounty, his wife so long as she was living and the hospital." Rhode Island Hospital Trust Co. v. Otis, CR.I. 1950) 75 A. (2d) 210.

Recommended Citation

Jean Engstrom S. Ed., TRUSTS-CONSTRUCTION-WHETHER DEVISE OF "ANY UNDISBURSED INCOME" AFTER LIFE TENANT'S DEATH INCLUDES INCOME WHICH ACCRUED BEFORE LIFE TENANT'S DEATH, 49 Mich. L. Rev. 1256 (1951).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol49/iss8/26