Case Name: Storb Appeal
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 1960-06-30
Citations: 400 Pa. 567
Docket Number: Appeal, No. 324
Parties: Storb Appeal.
Judges: Before Jones, C. J., Bell, Musmanno, Jones, Cohen, Boic and McBbide, JJ.
Reporter: Pennsylvania State Reports
Volume: 400
Pages: 567–584

Head Matter:
Storb Appeal.
Argued November 19, 1959.
Before Jones, C. J., Bell, Musmanno, Jones, Cohen, Boic and McBbide, JJ.
William G. Storb, with him Stein, Storb and Mann, for appellant.
F. Lyman Windolph, with him Windolph, Burk-holder & Hartman, for appellee.
June 30, 1960:

Opinion:
Opinion by
Mb. Justice Benjamin R. Jones,
This appeal presents for our determination the question whether the words "lawful issue" in a certain life insurance trust agreement include a child adopted by the settlor's daughter subsequent to the execution of the agreement in 1936 but prior to the settlor's death in 1958.
On May 19, 1936 Osborne H. Cilley (herein called Cilley) was the father of two children, Donald L. Cilley, then aged 24 years, and Ruth E. Cilley, then aged 19 years, both children having been born of a marriage between Cilley and Blanche E. Cilley. The record indicates that Cilley was married twice; first to Blanche E. Cilley, now an incompetent, and later to Frances A. Cilley.
On May 19, 1936 Cilley turned over to the Fulton National Bank of Lancaster (herein called Bank), under the terms of a written life insurance trust agreement, seven policies of life insurance on his, Cilley's, life with various life insurance companies in the total amount of f36,500. This agreement provided, inter alia, that: (1) the Bank was to hold the insurance policies "without any obligation of any nature in respect thereto, other than the safekeeping thereof" until the policies became payable by reason of Cilley's death; (2) on Cilley's death, the Bank was to receive the proceeds of the insurance and divide them into two parts: a one-third part was to be paid outright to Blanche E. Cilley, if she were then living, and a two-thirds part to be held as a trust fund; (3) the Bank was to pay the net income from the trust fund in regular installments to Donald L. Cilley and Ruth E. Cilley until "their arrival at the age of thirty (BO) years, respectively", when each child was to be paid one-half of the principal of the fund; (4) in the event that either Donald L. Cilley or Ruth E. Cilley, or both of them, died before the time of distribution of their shares "leaving lawful issue to survive either or both of them", .said "lawful issue" would take per stirpes the share of the parent and, if either child died without "lawful issue to survive", then the entire fund would go to the surviving child; (5) if both children died before the time for distribution of this fund without leaving lawful issue to survive, then the balance of the fund was to be distributed "among the lawful heirs of [Cilley], in accordance with the Intestate Laws of the State of Pennsylvania, the same vesting as of the date of the death of Blanche E. Cilley . if she shall survive [Cilley]"; (6) Cilley retained the "full right to exercise any benefit, option or privilege" under the policies except as to Blanche Cilley's share the provision for which was "declared to be irrevocable"; (7) it was "distinctly understood and agreed that [the agreement] shall be revocable at any time during his life by [Cilley], except as to the provision in favor of Blanche E. Cilley . . ., which shall be irrevocable, and that no interests of any hind shall vest in any parties . . . until the date of the death of [Cilley]" and Cilley reserved the right to "revoke, alter or modify" the agreement, in whole or in part.
On January 2, 1948, Cilley, in writing, withdrew from the Bank two-thirds of the proceeds of one matured life insurance policy and revoked the agreement insofar as it related to another life insurance policy.
Cilley died April 15, 1958. Donald L. Cilley survived his father, but Ruth E. Cilley (then Ruth C. Baer) predeceased her father, having died on December 28, 1955. Of Ruth E. Cilley's marriage to Kenneth F. Baer no children were born, bnt on November 13, 1953 — approximately two years prior to her death and approximately four and one-half years prior to Cilley's death, she and her husband adopted a child, known now as Kenneth L. Baer and now aged approximately seven years. Subsequent to his daughter's death Cilley made no change whatsoever in the trust agreement but did make a new will the effect of which was to exclude the adopted child from sharing in that portion of his estate which would pass by will.
The Bank filed its First and Final Account on June 5, 1958 and the Orphans' Court of Lancaster County appointed the appellant as guardian ad litem to protect the interests of the adopted child. The court, at audit, held that the adopted child did not take the share which his adopted mother, Ruth Baer, would have taken had she survived her father. Exceptions to this decree nisi were dismissed and a final decree was entered from which this appeal was taken.
The court below considered that the agreement between Cilley and the Bank became effective on May 19, 1936, and, therefore, the Intestate, Wills and Estates Acts of 1947 (which, in the words of the court below, completed "the grafting of adopted person upon the family tree of adopting parent and parents") were inapplicable in the construction of the agreement and that, at the time the agreement became effective, the law was settled that the word "issue" did not include an "adopted child": Howlett Estate, 366 Pa. 293, 297, 77 A. 2d 290.
Prior to the passage of the Acts of 1947, supra, an adopted child was not considered to be embraced with- ill the word "issue". In Howlett Estate, supra, the testator died in 1921 and, under his will — executed in 1907 — , he created a trust with life estates to his children and then to a child's issue, or, in default of issue, to surviving children and the issue of deceased children. During the term of the trust a son died leaving no natural born children but a daughter who had been adopted in 1897. Ruling that this adopted daughter of the deceased son was not entitled to take as "issue", this Court stated (p. 297) : " 'Issue' is not synonymous with 'children'. 'Issue' means issue of the body, offspring, progeny, natural children, physically born or begotten by the person named as parent: [citing cases]. An adopted child is issue of his natural parents and not of his adopted ones: [citing cases]". If the effective date of the conveyance under the 1936 agreement was prior to January 1, 1948- — the date upon which the Estates Act of 1947, supra, became operative — then Ilowlett will control the construction of the word "issue".
In determining the rights of inheritance of "chosen" or adopted children we are bound by the statutes of inheritance at the time the inheritance became effective and, in the case of a will, by the terms of the will itself: Howlett Estate, supra; Collins Estate, 393 Pa. 195, 200, 201, 142 A. 2d 178; Holton Estate, 399 Pa. 241, 159 A. 2d 883. In the present situation, however, we are dealing not with the rights of inheritance generally but with the rights of beneficiaries under the provisions of an unfunded life insurance trust agreement.
The present issue is not whether this 1936 agreement was testamentary or non-testamentary nor whether under this agreement a conveyance was contemplated. By the Act of 1957, supra, the legislature has declared that this type of unfunded life insurance trust must he construed as non-testamentary and to that mandate our judicial construction must yield. By Section 1(2) of the Estates Act of 1947, supra, a conveyance has been defined as ". . . an act by which it is intended to create an interest in real or personal property whether the act is intended to have inter vivos or testamentary operation". The 1936 agreement did create certain legal interests — even though contingent — in the subject matter of the agreement and did contemplate that a conveyance would take place. This trust agreement gave rise to the creation of two separate interests: an interest in the Bank to receive from the insurance companies the proceeds of the policies as such matured upon the death of Cilley and an interest in the persons named in the trust agreement to receive from the Bank such proceeds.
Our problem is to determine when the conveyance contemplated by the agreement took place. If the conveyance became effective prior to January 1, 1948 then, under Howlett, supra, the word "issue" excluded adopted children; if the conveyance became effective after January 1, 1948, then Section 14(3) of the Estates Act of 1947, supra, — equating adopted and natural children — must control our construction of the word "issue". Section 14(3) provides: "Adopted children. In construing a conveyance to a person or persons described by relationship to the conveyor or another, any person adopted before the effective date of the conveyance shall be considered the children of his adopting parent or parents and not the child of his natural parents. . . ." (Emphasis added). Our resolution of the problem must depend upon what Cilley intended and such intent is to be determined, if possible, by an examination of the language of the agreement: Swope Estate, 383 Pa. 494, 119 A. 2d 57; Rice v. Shank, 382 Pa. 396, 115 A. 2d 210.
Cilley expressly retained the right to exercise any benefit, option or privilege given to him under the provisions of the insurance policies as well as the right to revoke the agreement, in whole or in part, except as to Blanche Cilley's share. More important, however, than the reservation of these important rights was Cilley's self directed construction of the language of the agreement "that no interest of any hind shall vest in any party . . . until the date of [his] death. . . More emphatic and absolute language could not have been employed to express Cilley's intent that the conveyance of any legal interest should not take place until his death — a post mortem conveyance. That language, coupled with the other rights reserved by Cilley, renders inescapable the conclusion that it was Cilley's intent that no conveyance to the ultimate trust beneficiaries take place until his death had occurred and the Bank had received the proceeds of the insurance policies.
In actuality, the 1936 agreement contemplated two conveyances: a conveyance of the life insurance policies to the Bank whereby the Bank became the beneficiary under the policies subject to change, in whole or in part, by Cilley, and a conveyance of the proceeds of the policies by the Bank to the beneficiaries named in the trust agreement, a conveyance which was to take place upon the occurrence of two events, i.e., Cilley's death and the receipt by the Bank of the insurance proceeds, and then only if Cilley had not revoked, in whole or in part, the trust agreement. The argument that such a construction renders this agreement testamentary is without merit. The legislature has seen fit to place life insurance trusts in a separate category and has declared that such trusts shall be construed only as non-testamentary. A construction that such legislation is applicable only if the conveyance takes place during the settlor's lifetime amounts to judicial legislation and a reconstruction of the legislative language. In view of the fact that Cilley's death occurred subsequent to January 1, 1948, the conveyance to the beneficiaries named in the trust agreement could not become effective until subsequent to that date. It was not until his death that the beneficiaries named in the trust agreement secured any vested interest in the proceeds of the policies.
In McKean Estate, 366 Pa. 192, 195, 77 A. 2d 447, it was said: ". . . where a settlor, by his deed vests a present interest in the beneficiaries but reserves a beneficial interest and also a power to revoke or modify the deed in whole or in part, such interests are not thereby constituted mere expectancies but are present vested interests: [citing cases]". McKean, supra, is inapposite: (a) the factual situation therein was dissimilar; (b) A named beneficiary in a life insurance policy— wherein the insured reserves the right to change the beneficiary — has no vested interest in the policy or its proceeds during the insured's lifetime. See: Fidelity Trust Co. v. Travelers Insurance Co., 320 Pa. 161, 181 A. 594; Knoche v. Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, 317 Pa. 370, 176 A. 230; Riley v. Wirth, 313 Pa. 362, 169 A. 139; (c) the language in the present agreement expressly negatives a vesting of interests.
By its clear, unambiguous language the 1936 agreement did not constitute a present conveyance to the beneficiaries named in the trust agreement. Moreover, their interests created by the 1936 agreement were mere expectancies which could not be the subject of a grant or conveyance: Patterson v. Caldwell, 124 Pa. 455, 17 A. 18; Lennig's Estate, 182 Pa. 485, 38 A. 466. The 1936 agreement did contemplate a conveyance to them but a conveyance which would take place in the future upon the happening of two events, i.e., Cilley's failure to exercise during his lifetime the power of revocation reserved under the terms of the agreement and the receipt by the Bank of the proceeds of insurance. When and only when these events occurred was a conveyance to take place, a conveyance by the Bank to the persons and in the shares designated in the 1936 agreement of the proceeds of the insurance. Since these events did not occur until after the effective date of the Estates Act of 1947, supra, the date on which the conveyance became effective necessarily was subsequent to the effective date of said statute and Section 14(3) thereof became applicable. The legislative purpose so manifestly expressed in Section 14(3) brings an adopted child within the words "lawful issue" if the adoption antedated the effective date of the conveyance: Kenneth L. Baer, whose adoption took place prior to the effective date of this conveyance, is within-such class.
The legislature, through the statutes of adoption and inheritance, now has placed children chosen by adoption and children naturally born in the same status. In the instant situation this adopted child is "lawful issue" of his deceased mother and should take the share to which she was entitled under the terms of this agreement.
Decree reversed. Costs on appellee.
The record, however, does not indicate when the first marriage was dissolved nor when the second marriage took place.
The Bank became the named benefieiary on these policies.
If Blanche E. Oilley predeceased Cilley then her one-third part of the insurance proceeds would go into this trust fund.
Intestate Act, April 24, 1947, P. L. 80, §8, 20 PS §1.8; Wills Act, April 24, 1947, P. L. 89, §14(6), as amended Feb. 17, 1956, P. L. (1955) 1070, §1, 20 PS §180.14; Estates Act, April 24, 1947, P. L. 100, §14(3), 20 PS §301.14.
Cf: Estate of Rowan, 132 Pa. 299, 19 A. 82.
In Collins Estate, 393 Pa. 195, 209, 142 A. 2d 178, we said: "issue strongly connotes a blood relationship which arises solely by actual birth of the child to the parent".
It is beside tbe point to label tbis agreement as testamentary or non-testamentary: Brown Estate, 384 Pa. 99, 119 A. 2d 513; Henderson Estate, 395 Pa. 215, 149 A. 2d 892; Act of July 11, 1957, P. L. 792, §1, 20 PS §301.7a.
As tbe Supreme Court of Oregon well stated in Gordon, Exrx., etc., v. Portland Trust Bank, 201 Or. 648, 271 P. 2d 653; "Its [tbe Bank's] source of title was tbe promise in tbe policies not tbe trust agreement". On tbe other band, tbe beneficiaries' source of title was tbe promise in tbe trust agreement and not in tbe policies.
It is to be noted that twelve years after the execution of this agreement Cilley did exercise the right to revoke in part this agreement.
Phillips's Estate (No. 1), 205 Pa. 504, 55 A. 210, interpreted the word "vest" in a vastly different factual context.