The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-12-08
A LONG LIVED
ESTATE TO HANDLE

WASHINGTON, D. G. December -
The Supreme Court handed down a de-
cision in the Hawaiian case of Hannah
Fritchie and others VS.. Cecil Brown and
w. o. Smith, executors of the will of
George Galbraith, deceased. The appeal
is dismissed, thus unfolding the Ha-
waiian Supreme Court decision in favor
of the trustees of the estate.
This case is very interesting one
from a number of points of view. George
Galbraith, who had lived in Hawaii Ter
nearly half century, died November
5, 1904, aged over seventy years, teaY-
! ing an estate which was appraised at
| $3.50, 1875. BY his will, which was
made January 81, 1904, he distributed
| fifty or more legacies, ranging from
$3.50 to $4,000, to various relatives and
! friends, many of the relatives being
resident in Ireland, which was his ma
tive land. Among those to whom lega-
cies were given were Mrs. Mackintosh,
Harry Won Holt and Cecil Brown. He
| made Cecil Brown and w. o. Smith thu
executors of his will
After making these legacies, his win
provided: ''The balance, rrsidne or
remainder of my estate is to be placed
in trust for as long a period as is legsa-
| ly possible, the termination or END of
| said trust to take place when this law
| requires ii under the statute. hereby
nominate and appoint the Hawaiian
Trust Company, Limited, of Honolulu,
Territory of Hawaii, as trustee Of the
aforesaid balance, residue, or remainder
of my estate, and they are to devote
sufficient of the annual income derived
from the same toward paying the fol
lowing persons mentioned then follows
the names Of annuitauts and the
amounts which they are to receive an.
nuallyl All Of the foregoing for life
and then to their heirs Except certain
ones mentionedl. On the final ending
and distribution of the trust, the trust
funds to be divided equally amongst
those persons entitled at that time to
the aforementioned apnuitics.
This was the provision in the viii out
of which the litigation grew. After fhe
payment of all the legacies there was
left of the estate about $4,000 worth
of PERSONAL property, and all the real
estate. Most of the real estate is in
one piece in the district of Waialun and
leased at an annual rental of $4,000 a
year until 1850. The anpuities provided
for aggregated $3.50 a year, SO that the
income of the estate would very greatly
exceed the annuities, and il allowed to
accumulate would pile up an estate or
ten or twelve million dollars at the very
least during the time which it was
, claimed by the trustee that the trust
!, should exist. The heirs didn't like that.
What they wanted was distribution
of at least the excess of income over
annuity, right off, and so they brought
!, a suit to get it, The suit is entitled
!, Hannah Fritchie and others VS.. Cecil
Brown and others, and is the ease which
, the Supreme Court of the United States
:, has lust decided against them.
? The Supreme Court of the United
. States holds with the Supreme Court
! | of Hawaii that the trust is valid one
and is to last until twenty-one years
after the death of the last survivor OF
a the annuitants alive at the death OF
Galbraith. AS some of these annui
A tants were mere children at that time
n and therefore might be expected to live
p to be sixty or seventy years old, oil
= even older annuitants being proverb
tally long lived, the trust may be ex
g pected to last ait least seventy or eighty
q years, aud perhaps longer than that.
"a 1t certainly makes a pleasing pros
# pect for the Hawaiian Trust Company
"A to have the handling OF a cohtinuall
q increasing estate for seventy or eight
N years continuously an estate that start
with about 100000 and may be expect
ed to be million before SO very man,
years, and ten or twelve millions befor
it is distributed.
Z Incidentally, it may be mentione
that the Kona orphanaee is one of tn