Case ID: vt_81/html/0308-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Watson, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In Re Leonard F. Aldrich's Will.
    May Term, 1908.
    Present: Rowell, C. J., Tyler, Munson, and Watson, JJ.
    Opinion filed July 27, 1908.
    
      Equity — Wills—Construction—Necessary Parties — Beneficiaries of Trust Estate — Municipal Corporations and Inhabitants Thereof Distinguished.
    
    Where a wiil made the inhabitants of certain municipalities beneficiaries of a trust estate, those beneficiaries are necessary parties to a bill in equity to construe the will, although the municipal corporations accepted service and appeared by their solicitor; since such corporations are not the same as their respective inhabitants, and do not bear the same relation to the will.
    Appeal in Chancery. Heard at the March Term, 1908, Washington County, Hall, Chancellor. Bill dismissed. The orator appealed.
    This is a bill for the construction of the will of Leonard A. Aldrich, brought by the Aldrich Public Library, a corporation organized under No. 207, Acts 1898, as trustee under said will of certain property thereby given in trust for the purchase of a lot in the city of Barre and the erection and.maintenance thereon of a suitable building “to be occupied and used for a public library for the inhabitants within the limits of” the city of Barre and the town of Barre. The other pertinent facts are stated in the opinion.
    
      
      jEdivard W. Bisbee for the orator.
    
      J. Ediuard Carver for the town of Barre and the city of Barre.
   Watson, J.

By the will the inhabitants of both the city of Barre and the town of Barre constitute the cestuis que trust of the trust estate of which the orator is trustee, but they are not made parties to the bill and are not before the court. No one was in form made defendant, although the city and town respectively accepted service of the bill, and have appeared by their solicitor. Yet these corporations are not the same as the inhabitants thereof and do not bear the same relation to the will. The cestuis que trust have the equitable and ultimate interest to be affected by a decree upon the question presented by the bill. Consequently they are necessary parties. Story Eq. PI. Sec. 207.

The decree will therefore be reversed pro forma and cause remanded that the orator may act as it may be advised.

Decree reversed pro forma and cause remanded.