Case Name: Elizabeth Ann Ebitz & others vs. Pioneer National Bank & another
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1977-03-22
Citations: 372 Mass. 207
Docket Number: 
Parties: Elizabeth Ann Ebitz & others vs. Pioneer National Bank & another.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 372
Pages: 207–216

Head Matter:
Elizabeth Ann Ebitz & others vs. Pioneer National Bank & another.
Hampden.
December 10, 1976.
March 22, 1977.
Present: Hennessey, C.J., Quirico, Braucher, Kaplan, Wilkins, Liacos, & Abrams, JJ.
Paul B. Sargent for the Pioneer National Bank.
Francis Hanify, Assistant Attorney General, for the Attorney General.
David Burres for the plaintiffs.
Nancy Jean Kuiuila and Margaret Ann Gustavis intervened as parties plaintiff.
Formerly The First National Bank of Northampton.
The Attorney General is a named party defendant and, in brief and oral argument, supported the position of the plaintiffs. If there is any question about the standing of the plaintiffs, as female law students from Northampton, to contest the trustee’s construction of the class of trust beneficiaries, the Attorney General has clear standing to raise this issue. See Ames v. Attorney Gen., 332 Mass. 246, 250, 251 (1955).

Opinion:
Hennessey, C.J.
This is an appeal from a Probate Court judgment which ordered the defendant bank (bank) as trustee under the will of Leigh Sanford to accept and process applications from females for financial assistance from the Richard W. and Florence B. Irwin Scholarship Fund (fund). The judgment further ordered the bank to apply the same eligibility criteria to female applicants and male applicants. The case was heard in the Probate Court under a statement of agreed facts in June, 1973.
The bank is trustee of the fund, a public charitable trust established pursuant to the will of Leigh Sanford.* 123 The will which was drafted in 1963 and allowed in January, 1970, directed that the fund "be used to aid and assist worthy and ambitious young men to acquire a legal education, so that they may be better fitted and qualified to become good citizens of their country, leaders in their community, and able members of the legal profession. To be eligible for consideration for assistance from the fund, the student or students, as the case may be shall be residents of the City of Northampton." The trust is dedicated to Judge Irwin and his wife. In view of Judge Irwin's expressed interest in the educational program of the Knights Templar, an organization of which he was a member, the testator suggests to his trustee "that it acquaint itself with the educational work of this organization and use its program as a guide in the carrying out of the trust imposed on it under this portion of my will." In addition, the testator expressed his desire to assist as many students as possible with the fund.
The plaintiffs are female law students who made timely applications to the bank for assistance from the fund. The bank rejected their applications on the ground that only male applicants are eligible for consideration. The Knights Templar maintain a revolving trust fund to assist worthy students in securing a higher education through loans. Such loans are made without regard to race, creed, color, sex or national origin.
The probate judge held that the testator did not intend to exclude female residents of Northampton from eligibility for fund assistance. The judge concluded from its context in the will that the term "men" in the phrase "worthy and ambitious young men" was employed in a generic sense and was not intended to exclude females, especially in light of the testator's reference to the educational program of the Knights Templar. In so deciding, the judge expressly avoided deciding whether a public charitable trust may constitutionally discriminate against women. The plaintiffs argue that the judge correctly construed the testator's intent and that a contrary construction would render the trust violative of the equal protection provisions of the United States and Massachusetts Constitutions.
The bank appeals from the construction of "young men" in the will of Leigh Sanford to include "young women." It argues that a testator need not ungraciously add "but not young women" to his trust for the benefit of young men in order to confine his bounty to young men. However, we hold on the facts in this case that the testator did not wish so to confine his bounty and therefore we affirm the judgment below.
The term "young men" is unambiguous unless, in the context of the entire instrument, an element of ambiguity is introduced. When such an element of ambiguity appears, we look at the entire trust instrument and to the general scheme it reveals in order to clarify the intended significance of the troublesome term. Persky v. Hutner, 369 Mass. 7, 15 (1975). See State St. Trust Co. v. Crocker, 306 Mass. 257, 260 (1940). Consideration of an entire instrument may evince a general testamentary scheme which indicates that particular terms have a meaning different from that which they normally convey when standing alone. Ibid. Thus, the very provisions which make ambiguous a normally unambiguous phrase can clarify the ambiguity.
The testator in this case suggested that his trustee use the educational program of the Knights Templar as a guide for carrying out the trust established in his will (n.4, par. [4]). The Knights Templar program provides financial assistance to a broad class of graduate students without regard to their sex. This testamentary provision, hence, is highly significant, because a trustee cannot follow its guidelines and at the same time restrict fund benefits of the trust to young men.
In addition, in par. [3] (see n.4) of the trust the testator states as his goal assistance of "as many students as possible." Limitation of the pool of prospective applicants is inconsistent with this objective. Consequently, we do not find that the testator intended to exclude an entire group of prospective beneficiaries without express language to that effect. While the testator expressly restricted eligibility for use of the fund to Northampton residents he did not so limit eligibility to males. In fact, in describing eligibility and selection of applicants (n.4, par. [3]) he consistently used sex neutral terms which imply that the trustee should not restrict the class of fund recipients to males.
Finally, we note that the fund is dedicated not only to Judge Irwin, but also to Florence Irwin, his wife. This fact, together with the use of sex neutral terms, reference to the sex neutral program of the Knights Templar, and the stated testamentary goal of aiding as many students as possible, demonstrates a basic trust scheme to help finance the education of as many Northampton law students as the fund reasonably can without regard to their sex.
If some ambiguity should remain, we think the declared policy of the Commonwealth (art. 106 of the Amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution) regarding equal treatment of the sexes should lead us to resolve it in favor of the plaintiffs.
We conclude that Leigh Sanford intended that Northampton residents of both sexes be considered as eligible applicants for fund assistance and used the term "men" in its generic sense, which includes women. Because the tes tator's intent defines the rights in the fund created under the trust instrument, Collier v. Napierski, 357 Mass. 516, 519-520 (1970), we affirm the Probate Court orders to accept and process applications from females for assistance from the fund and to apply the same eligibility criteria to female and male applicants.
Judgment affirmed.
The testamentary trust provides in relevant part:
"All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, real, personal and mixed, of whatever nature and wheresoever situate, which I may own or have the right to dispose of at the time of my decease, I give, devise and bequeath to The First National Bank of Northampton, of Northampton, Massachusetts, IN TRUST, NEVERTHELESS, for the following uses and purposes:
"To establish the Richard W. and Florence B. Irwin Scholarship Fund, the net income from said fund to be used to aid and assist worthy and ambitious young men to acquire a legal education, so that they may be better fitted and qualified to become good citizens of their country, leaders in their community, and able members of the legal professions.
"To be eligible for consideration for assistance from the fund, the student or students, as the case may be shall be residents of the City of Northampton. The method of granting aid and the selection of the students to receive such scholarships shall be determined from time to time by my said Trustee. It is my desire that as many students as possible be assisted by this fund, subject to the provision that my Trustee shall always maintain a sufficient reserve so that it will not be neces sary for any recipient of said fund to leave school before his education is completed for lack of funds.
"Richard W. Irwin was devoted to Northampton, to which he came as a young man, and where he lived and made for himself an enviable reputation as citizen, lawyer and Judge. He was ably assisted by his wife, Florence Bangs Irwin. Judge Irwin frequently expressed an interest in the educational program of the Knights Templar, of which organization he was a member for many years. It is suggested to my Trustee that it acquaint itself with the educational work of this organization and use its program as a guide in the carrying out of the trust imposed on it under this portion of my will.
"In the event that there are no applicants for" funds for a legal education, then the net income from said fund is to be used to aid and assist worthy and ambitious .young men to become doctors of medicine or osteopathy, or ministers of the Christian faith of any Protestant denomination."
We have added numbers to the paragraphs above to lend clarity to several references later in this opinion.