Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/301/301mass235.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 14:59:23+00:00

Document:
GEORGE D. BURRAGE & another, trustees, vs. ROBERT HORTON BUCKNAM & others.
Under a provision of a will unequivocally directing payment of the net income of a trust fund to a son of the testatrix, the trustee was not permitted to make payments from income for the support of a former wife of the son divorced after the death of the testatrix by a decree awarding her alimony, or of a child, born after the death of the testatrix.
trustees under the will of Mary Helen Bucknam, late of Cambridge.
The case was reserved and reported by Monahan, J., upon the pleadings and an agreed statement of facts.
A. Brayton, stated the case.
E. C. Parks, for Theresa R. Bucknam.
J. W. Vaughan, for David Horton Bucknam.
A. F. Harrington, for guardian ad litem.
W. T. Snow, (C. Jackson, Jr., with him,) for Robert Horton Bucknam.
QUA, J. In Bucknam v. Bucknam, 294 Mass. 214, we decided that Theresa R. Bucknam, as the former wife of Robert Horton Bucknam, was barred from reaching and applying in payment of alimony and for support of a minor child, and from enforcing an assignment of, the income payable to Robert Horton Bucknam under the terms of a trust contained in the will of his mother, Mary Helen Bucknam, because of the spendthrift clause constituting the seventh paragraph of that will. We there adverted to the settled law of this Commonwealth sustaining the validity of spendthrift provisions for the protection of beneficiaries, citing Broadway National Bank v. Adams, 133 Mass. 170, and many other cases, and we held that in endeavoring to enforce her decree for alimony the former wife stood "no better than any other creditor." We are not asked to go over that ground again.
undecided before. It will conduce to a clear understanding of that question if it be kept in mind that the former wife and child are not now claiming as creditors or assignees of Robert Horton Bucknam, but are contending that because of their dependence upon him they themselves have become beneficiaries under the will of his mother. The spendthrift clause is not a factor in this case. As the elder Mrs. Bucknam was disposing of her own property and could choose her own beneficiaries and was under no obligation to include her son's family among them, this case is to be decided solely upon the construction of her will, and that is to be ascertained in the usual way by reading her intention from the language which she used in the light of the circumstances then existing.
not under age or may pay the same to his guardian or may apply and expend the same in such manner and ways as they deem to be for his benefit. Any balance of said net income not so expended shall be added to the principal of the trust fund. When my said son reaches the age of twenty-five years the trustees shall pay over to him semiannually or oftener in their discretion the net income of said trust fund until he shall reach the age of thirty years and thereupon shall pay over to him the principal of said trust fund free and discharged of all trusts. . . ."
Then follow provisions for payment of the principal to the son's issue per stirpes, if he dies before reaching the age of thirty, and further dispositions in default of such issue. The rest of the will seems to have no bearing upon this controversy. As Robert Horton Bucknam is now between the ages of twenty-five and thirty, the provision of the trust now operative is that which requires the trustees to "pay over to him . . . the net income of said trust fund. . . ."
property, if any, to be taken into account? If so, and if his property is large, might not a possible logical result be to deprive him who alone is named in the will of the greater part or even of all the income, and to give it to his dependents? Does the will mean that? Where is the stopping point? Do the words "pay over to him . . . the net income" vary in meaning from time to time with varying circumstances? What is to happen when, shortly, Robert Horton Bucknam becomes thirty years of age? Do the words "and thereupon shall pay over to him the principal of said trust fund" mean what they say, or do they mean that the trustees are to divide the principal among Robert Horton Bucknam and the former and present members of his family according to some plan which the trustees or the court may conceive will best meet the necessities of each?
We do not say that these questions are all necessarily incapable of solution, if the construction of the will which is contended for is the true one, but we do say that these considerations and more which might be mentioned show what a complicated situation would arise, and what extensive and delicate duties would devolve upon the trustees and upon the courts if once we departed from the simple words of the will, and how extremely unlikely it is that the testatrix intended to involve her estate in such difficulties, none of which she mentioned, when she directed her trustees to pay the income to her son. Presumably she expected that he would do his duty by his wife and by his children, if he should have any, although she intended to give him protection against creditors until he should reach the age of thirty, but we can find nothing whatever to suggest that she intended to do his duty for him in her will.
289 Penn. St. 542. (Compare, however, Board of Charities v. Lockard, 198 Penn. St. 572.) Wetmore v. Wetmore, 149 N.Y. 520. Ferguson v. Ferguson, 247 App. Div. (N.Y.) 24. Eaton v. Eaton, 81 N.H. 275; S. C. 82 N.H. 216. Rhode Island Hospital Trust Co. v. Egan, 52 R.I. 384. Bridgeport-City Trust Co. v. Beach, 119 Conn. 131, 139, 145. See Sand v. Beach, 270 N.Y. 281, 286. It is not necessary to discuss these cases in detail or to disagree with all of them. In some of them the will contained language more readily susceptible of the construction given it than anything contained in the pertinent part of Mrs. Bucknam's will. Her command to pay the income to her son is direct and unequivocal. In some of the cases the decision was rested partly upon other grounds. In others the court seems more concerned to discover means of avoiding the spendthrift clause than to ascertain the intent of the testator. In general we prefer the reasoning in Erickson v. Erickson, 197 Minn. 71, 77-79. See Foster v. Foster, 133 Mass. 179; Slattery v. Wason, 151 Mass. 266; De Rousse v. Williams, 181 Iowa, 379, 382; Gilkey v. Gilkey, 162 Mich. 664.
A decree is to be entered instructing the trustees that no payments out of the income of the trust are to be made to Theresa R. Bucknam or to David H. Bucknam. Costs of this appeal as between solicitor and client are to be at the discretion of the Probate Court.

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