Case ID: misc_68/html/0278-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Ketcham, S.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Matter of the Judicial Settlement of the Account of Kings County Trust Company, as Executor of and Under the Last Will and Testament and Codicil Thereto, of William Howard, Late of the County of Kings, Deceased.
    (Surrogate’s Court, Kings County,
    June, 1910.)
    Executors and administrators — Distribution and disposal of personal estate — Interest on legacies and shares — Legacies to widow, children or dependent persons.
    Where a trust is created by a testator for the benefit of his widow for and during her natural life, the income therefrom should be paid to her from the time of his death.
    Proceeding upon the judicial settlement of an executor.
    George V. Brower, for executor.
    Lyon & Smith (Edward P. Lyon, of counsel), for Anna P. Howard, widow.
   Ketcham, S.

There was a gift in trust of $32,000, to pay the income thereof to the widow “for and during her natural life.”

While, practically, a trust fund may not he released from-the burdens of administration until the expiration of a year or more after the grant of letters, yet in the vision of the law the trust is in progress from the testator’s death, unless a contrary intent is apparent in the will. If this were not so, the time when the income should become payable would be subject to the caprice or neglect of executors or casual delays in the probate.

Hence, the income which accrues between the death and the time when in the convenience of events the trust fund is actually separated from the possession of the executors as such is payable to the beneficiary, unless a contrary intent appears in the will. Matter of Stanfield, 135 N. Y. 292; Bank of Niagara v. Talbot, 110 App. Div. 519; Matter of Harris, 61 Misc. Rep. 563.

It has not been possible to discern in the will or codicil here presented any purpose that the widow should not receive the income from her husband’s death, and it' should be paid to her.

Decreed accordingly.