Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/323/323mass233.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 02:33:09+00:00

Document:
E. SOHIER WELCH & another, trustees, vs. CABOT JACKSON MORSE, JUNIOR, & others.
Present: QUA, C.J., LUMMUS, DOLAN, SPALDING, & WILLIAMS, JJ.
An exercise of a power to appoint property is not invalid merely because it is partial and does not exhaust the power.
Under a will establishing a trust and directing that at the death of the survivor of a group of income beneficiaries, including a nephew of the testatrix, the trustee should "transfer and pay over . . . [a part of the trust fund] to the use of the wife and issue" of the nephew "as he may by will have appointed; provided" that, if the nephew's wife had been living at the death of the testatrix, he should "appoint to her no larger interest" in the appointive property "than a right to the income during her life," a provision in the will of the nephew, who had died leaving a wife and son surviving, appointing to his wife, who had been living at the death of the testatrix, the income of all the appointive property during her life, but not otherwise dealing with that property, constituted a valid partial exercise of the power; all the group of income beneficiaries having died, the appointive property must be held for administration by the same trustee for the benefit of the nephew's wife during her life, and its ultimate disposition left to be determined by future events.
PETITION, filed in the Probate Court for the county of Essex on August 4, 1947.
R. M. Robinson, stated the case.
T. L. Gannon, (F. X. Ahearn with him,) for the respondent Cabot Jackson Morse, Jr.
R. G. Dodge, for the respondent Anna Braden Morse.
J. M. Woolsey, Jr., for Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
H. T. Davis & J. D. Merriam, for Museum of Fine Arts; and J. M. Russell, for President and Fellows of Harvard College, submitted a brief.
SPALDING, J. This is a petition by the successor trustees under the will of Marian Hovey for instructions as to the disposition of a trust fund created by her will.
not receive any part of the trust property, but it shall be divided equally between the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."
While the clause just quoted purported to dispose of the property of which the testatrix had a power to dispose under the will of her late father, George O. Hovey, it was agreed that the petitioners have never received any property under that will and that the fund now before the court comprises only property owned by the testatrix individually.
The brother and the sister of the testatrix died respectively in 1900 and 1922. The nephew John Torrey Morse, 3d, died in 1928, never having married and leaving no issue. After his death the other nephew, Cabot Jackson Morse, received all the income of the trust fund until his death on August 21, 1946. He was survived by a widow, Anna Braden Morse, who was born prior to the death of the testatrix, and by a son, Cabot Jackson Morse, Junior, who was his sole issue. He left a will, the material portions of which are as follows: "Second: I give to my son, Cabot Jackson Morse, Jr., the sum of one dollar ($1.00), as he is otherwise amply provided for. Third: The power of appointment which I have under the wills of my aunt, Marian Hovey, and my uncle, Henry S. Hovey, both late of Gloucester, Massachusetts, I exercise as follows: I appoint to my wife, Anna Braden Morse, the right to the income during her lifetime of all of the property to which my power of appointment applies under the will of Marian Hovey, and I appoint to my wife the right during her widowhood to the income to which I would be entitled under the will of Henry S. Hovey if I were living."
make? Third: If the answer to the first prayer is in the negative, to whom and in what proportions should your petitioners distribute the principal of said trust fund?"
The decree of the Probate Court was that the petitioners as trustees under the will of Marian Hovey should "continue to hold the said fund and administer it upon the trusts under article seventh of the will of Marian Hovey, as appointed by Cabot Jackson Morse, for the benefit of Anna Braden Morse for and during her lifetime." The case comes to this court on the appeal of Cabot Jackson Morse, Junior, hereinafter called the respondent.
A summary of the respondent's position is that the intention of the testatrix, as gathered from the will as a whole, was to terminate the trust upon the death of the donee of the power and to pay the principal to the wife and issue; that this was a mandatory power of appointment in the nature of a trust for the wife and issue which imposed an obligation on the donee to execute it and apportion the principal; and that, since the donee failed to execute the power, the court as a court of equity must carry out the donor's intention in the only way now possible, namely, by giving one half of the fund outright to the respondent and one half to the wife, the latter's interest, however (due to the fact that she was living during the life of the testatrix), to be limited to the income on this share for life.
extent that the power was exercised it was valid. The failure of the donee to dispose of the principal of the fund ought not to affect the validity of the appointment of income. A partial exercise of a power is not invalid because it does not exhaust the power.
No case involving the precise question presented here has been brought to our attention nor have we been able to find one. But analogies are not lacking. In Watson v. Watson, 223 Mass. 425, the donee of a power of appointment was given the power to debar his children from receiving either principal or income from a trust fund. He exercised the power debarring them from receiving principal but did not mention income. It was argued that in so doing the donee failed to execute the power. In rejecting this argument the court said at page 429: "Having power over both [principal and income], the execution was not invalid because he used it only to prevent them from participating in the principal." And it is settled that, where an exercise of a power is in part valid and in part invalid, such exercise, so far as valid, will be given effect if the valid and invalid elements are separable. Greenough v. Osgood, 235 Mass. 235, 242. Old Colony Trust Co. v. Richardson, 297 Mass. 147. Restatement: Property, Section 362. Thus in Greenough v. Osgood, cited above, it was held that an appointment to one for life followed by a remainder over which was void for remoteness would be upheld as to the life estate. See Gray, Rule against Perpetuities (4th ed.) Section 531. It is likewise established that, where one has power to appoint in fee, an appointment of a lesser estate, unless the instrument creating the power otherwise provides, is valid. Bovey v. Smith, 1 Vern. 84. Guild v. Mayor & Common Council of Newark, 87 N. J. Eq. 38, 43. Butler v. Huestis, 68 Ill. 594, 597-598. Mays v. Beach, 114 Tenn. 544, 549. Sugden on Powers (8th ed.) 272. Tiffany, Real Property (3d ed.) Section 690. Compare Hooper v. Hooper, 203 Mass. 50, 59.
We are also of opinion that the trustees under that will should administer the trust during the life of Anna Braden Morse. See Lovejoy v. Bucknam, 299 Mass. 446, 451-455. What disposition should be made of the trust fund after the death of Anna Braden Morse is a question not before us and we express no opinion on it. The petitioners seek instructions only as to their present duties. See National Shawmut Bank v. Morey, 320 Mass. 492; Young v. Jackson, 321 Mass. 1, 6-7.
The decree of the Probate Court is affirmed. Reasonable allowances for costs and expenses of the proceedings before us may be allowed to the parties or to their counsel in the discretion of the Probate Court. The compensation of the trustees is properly the subject of their subsequent accounting.
[Note p234-1] It was agreed that the Harvard Medical School admits women to instruction on an equal footing with men.
[Note p238-1] See Bundy v. United States Trust Co. 257 Mass. 72, 80.

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