The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-08

This case is a very interesting one
from a number of points of view. George
Galbraith, who had lived in Hawaii fol
nearly half a century, died November
5, 1904, aged over seventy years, leav
ing an estate which was appraised al
$2S3. 1875. By his will, which was
made January q, 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. Macintosh,
Harry Won Holt and Cecil Brown. He
made Cecil Brown and w. o. Smith the
executors of his will
After making these legacies, his will
provided: E'The balance, residue or
remainder of my estate is to be placed
in trust for as long a period as is legal
ly possible, the termination or end of
said trust to take place when the law
requires it 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 annuitants and the
amounts which they are to receive an
nuallyl. All of the foregoing for life
and then to their heirs Except certain
ones mentioned. 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 annuities. -
This was the provision in the will out
of which the litigation grew. After the
payment of all the legaeies 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 Waialua and
leased at an annual rental of $4,000
year until 1850. The annuities provided
for aggregated $3.50 year, so that the
income of the estate would very greatly
exceed the annuities, and if allowed to
accumulate would pile up an estate of
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 a 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 case which |
the Supreme Court of the United States |
has just 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 |
the annuitants alive at the death of |
Galbraith. AS some of these annui-
.ants were mere children at that time
and therefore might be expected to live
TO be sixty or seventy years old, or
even older, annuitants being proverb
ally long lived, the trust may be ex-
,ected to last at least seventy or eighty
years, and perhaps longer than that.
1t certainly makes a pleasing pros
,ect for the Hawaiian Trust Company,
o have the handling of a continually
Increasing estate for seventy or eighty
years continuously, an estate that starts
With about 100000 and may be expect
ID to be million before so very many
rears, and ten or twelve mi lions before
t is distributed.
Incidentally, it may be mentioned
hat the Kona 0rphanage is one of the
coming in for 800 a year,