Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1897-01-23
SATURDAY, JAN. 23. 1897
Mr.. Fayerweather's Mistake.

4.
1t is not safe to assume that the
money which Mr.. Fayerweather IN
tended to give to colleges will soon be
appropriated to the institutions OF his
selection. 1t is true that the Court OF
Appeals, the tribunal of last resort |
has decided that the trust fund placed !
in the hands of the executors must De
distributed among the colleges plckeo
out by Mr.. Fayerweather to be the re-
cipients of his bounty, and may not De
diverted to other foundations at Ihe
whim of the executors. The Court
said that, all obstacles to the enforce
ment of the secret trust being removed, !
it bound the residuary legatees ana
compelled them to keep their promise
to the testator and turn over the resld-
uary estate to the twenty colleges men
toned in the will. This would seem TO
settle the question. The will is proved
the trust established, and the dlsposi-
tion of the property ordered by the
highest authority Nevertheless, such
is the tenacity of lawyers, it may be
better to describe this decision as mark
ing an important stage in the case than
as an end to the litigation.
For more than five years this case has
been in court, and at every turn OF the
proceedings fat allowances have been
made to the counsel engaged on all
sides. And now, in announcing that
the colleges are entitled to what is left
the Court of Appeals makes liberal pro-
vision for all the lawyers of all the
parties who found an excuse for being
represented by seperate counsel; and
with the prospect of such pickings be-
fore them there was mutually no dearth
of separate counsel for many allied in
terests And, after all this, still further
litigation is threatened. The famous
fourth codicil, which was supplanted
bv the one now ordered to be enforced,
and which was afterwards burned, still
has its partisans They wish to force
the secret of it's contents, now so care
fully guarded, and threaten to tie up
the estate for another five years. II
this can be done, the lawyers Will
doubtless profit greatly. The fact that
Mr. Fayerweather's wishes will there
bv be further frustrated will probably
not be a weighty consideration with
those responsible for the delay. If any |
such motive had been influential in the
case from the beginning, the twenty |
colleges would have had their money |
long ago. and, for that matter all the
discreditable engineering ABOUT new
codicils would never have taken place. !
Mr.. Fayerweather evidently know per- !
fectly we'll where he wanted his money |
to 60 In his will he gave the resid~ |
nary estate to twenty colleges, but
later, to avoid conflict with the law, he
made the secret trust of the first codlcil /
for their benefit That stood until four
davs before his death, when the engi- |
neering for a slice of the dying mans
estate began. From that day to this
Mr.. Fayerweather's millions have been
a morsel for lawyers to fight over and
make a good living by while they
fought.
Whether the end comes now or in
five years, whether the colleges get the
property or it is dissipated in litigation,
the lesson of the case is the same. The
man who wants to do good should do
it while he is living. Instead of giving
his executors the pain of distributing
his money for charity, Mr.. Fayer-
weather might himself have had the
pleasure of seeing his wishes carried
out. The Tilden case enforces the
same truth. The larger the estate and
the more eminent the lawyer who
draws the will, apparently the less
chance is there of the testators wishes
being executed, The men who in their
own lifetimes have used their money to
promote objects near to their hearts
have had the fullest enjoyment of their
wealth. In works of charity it Is best
to be the executor of ones own will
" Y. Tribune.