The Coconino sun., 1925-10-16
SUPREME COURT DENIES
LOWELL ESTATE APPEAL

The Arizona supreme court Friday
declined to interfere with the carrying
out of the terms of the will of DR..
Percival Lowell, founder Of the
Lowell observatory at Flagstaff, in
volving the distribution of an estate
valued at approximately $2,000,000.
The supreme courts order was. con-
tained in an opinion which denied the
appeal of Mrs. Constance Lowell, who
had attacked the provisions of the
will which left the bulk of the estate
in trust for the Lowell observatory.
The supreme court order affirms in
its entirety the judgment of the SUI
perior court of Judge j. E. Jones of
Coconino county, where Mrs. LowelI's
suit originated, and directs that the
lower court proceed with the distribu-
ton Of the estate in accordance with
the supreme court opinion.
The opinion of the supreme court,
as prepared by Justice Henry D. Ross,
pays high tribute to the work and par
tiCularly to the foresight of DR..
Lowell. The tributes form sections of
the opinion and are pointed to as be-
ing facts to sustain various points at
issue in the litigation.
DR.. Lowell died on November Is,
1916, leaving a viii which provided
that Mrs. Lowell should receive S173,-
600, personal and household effects,
automobile, and As per cent of the net
income of the estate. The residuary
estate was left to his brother-in-law,
DR.. William Lowell Putnam, in trust
for the Lowell observatory. The will
gave the trustee full control Of the
management of the trust fund. Dr.
Putnam was succeeded as trustee by
Guy Lowell under terms of the will,
Guy Lowell being named as defendant
in the action brought by the widow.
Mrs. Lowell, in suing to break the
will, held that the creation of a trust
fund for the observatory was in direct
violation of state laws against per-
petuities. Trustees of the fund con-
tended that the gift to the observa-
tory constituted legal, charitable be-
quest, a view which was upheld by the
supreme courts opinion.
Typical of sections of the. opinion
which pay tribute to the foresight OF
DR.. Lowell is the section which states:
.fWe are thoroughly satisfied that he
(Dr. LOVELY gave to his trustee all
his residuary estate in trust for the
use of the Lowell observatory with
the present right and power TO sell the
same, and that such power and
right to sell extends to the realty
upon which the observatory is sit
uated. AS an institution the observa-
tory was to be perpetual. The study
of astronomy was to continue, al
though the telescopes and apparatus
now in use being obsolete and the
building that houses them unfit.
at is apparent" the opinion con-
tinues, ''from a study of DR.. Lowell's
will that whoever drafted it knew
that many charitable trusts had been
wrecked or greatly damaged because
the donor had violated the statutes
against perpetuities by suspending the
absolute power of sale. Dr. Lowell
left his estate with his trustee with
powers untrammeled to administer it..
He knew this was necessary to secure
the best results in the study of the
science of astronomy since it, as every
other science, was advancing by leaps
and bounds and its needs of today
might and would be supplanted by
the inventions and discoveries of to-
morrow