Case Name: Campbell vs. Low
Court: New York Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1850-10-07
Citations: 9 Barb. 585
Docket Number: 
Parties: Campbell vs. Low.
Judges: 
Reporter: Barbour's Supreme Court Reports
Volume: 9
Pages: 585–595

Head Matter:
Same Term.
Before the same Justices.
Campbell vs. Low.
A trust, authorizing the trustee to control, manage, and dispose of the trust estate, and the income thereof, and to pay over the same to a married woman, for her support and maintenance, is substantially a trust to receive the rents and profits and apply the same to her use, within the terms of the statute of trusts, and is therefore valid.
Where by the terms of a deed of trust the cestui que trust, a married woman, is given full power of disposition of the estate, after the death of her husband, and the same power during his life, with his assent, a mortgage executed by husband and wife, is a good execution of the power, and conveys the estate.
This action was brought by the plaintiff, as trustee of Mary M. Jennings, to recover the sum of $600, surplus moneys arising from the sale of mortgaged premises. The plaintiff claimed by virtue of a deed of marriage settlement made on the 21st of 'July, 1845, by and between William M. Jennings of the first part, Mary M. Jennings his wife of the second part, and Robert S. Gordon jun. of the third part. The deed, after reciting that Mary M. Jennings, previous to her marriage, was seised and possessed of certain real and personal estate, which it was understood and agreed, by and between her and William M. Jennings, previous to their intermarriage, should be secured to her, conveyed to the said Robert S. Gordon jun. all her real and personal estate, for and upon the following uses, purposes and _ trusts, and under the following powers and limitations : “ Intrust for the said Mary M. Jennings, and for her heirs, executors and administrators, (other than and exclusive of her said husband,) as her sole, exclusive, and separate estate, and for her and their sole, separate and only use and benefit, exclusive of any and all right, title, interest, power and claim of her said husband therein, and of all liability for the payment of any of his debts, or on account of any of his acts, or on his account by reason of said marriage, or otherwise; and upon this further trust, that in case the said Mary M. Jennings shall die before the said William M. Jennings, and leave him surviving her, that the said real and personal estate shall go and belong to such lawful issue or issues, if any, of the said Mary M. Jennings as may be living at her death; to go and belong absolutely and in fee simple to such of said issue as shall live until the time when and whenever the youngest of such issue (who shall live to attain the age of twenty-one years) shall attain the said age of twenty-one years. But if all such issue shall die before the said real and personal estate can vest absolutely in some or all of them, as aforesaid, and unless otherwise conveyed by the said last will and testament of the said Mary M. Jennings, then the said real and personal estate, upon the death of all such issues as aforesaid, shall go and belong to the said William M. Jennings absolutely. And upon this further trust, that if the said William M. Jennings shall die, and the said Mary M. Jennings shall survive him, to convey and assure all the said real and personal estate unto her absolutely; and upon this further trust, that is to say, to convey and assure the said real and personal estate to such person or persons as she the said Mary M. Jennings shall at any time hereafter, by any deed under her hand and seal, duly executed and acknowledged, appoint and direct the same to be conveyed and assured unto, and upon such trusts, if any, as she may give and desire the same, unto, in and by any last will and testament, to be made by her in due form of law, the samé as if she were a feme sole at the time of her making it, and that whether she shall be sole or covert at the time of making the same; and upon this further trust, that he the said Robert S. Gordon jun., his heirs, executors and administrators, shall and may in his and their discretion, control, manage, sell, dispose of, vest and reinvest the said real and personal estate and the income thereof, as shall be deemed most advantageous, rendering to the said Mary M. Jennings so much thereof of principal or income as may be necessary and proper for the maintenance and support of herself and family, and that her sole and separate receipt therefor shall be a sufficient acquittance; and upon this further trust, that after the death of the said Mary M. Jennings, if she leave lawful issue surviving her at her death, and has not disposed of her estate ag herein provided, then and until said real and personal estate shall vest absolutely in said issue as aforesaid, the said Robert S. Gordon jun., his heirs, executors and administrators, shall and may manage, control, sell and dispose of, vest and reinvest the said real and personal estate and its income, in any real and personal estate in his and their discretion, rendering from the same whatever may be necessary and proper for the maintenance, support and education of such issue; and upon this further trust, that it shall and may be lawful and proper to sell any of the estate hereby assigned, or that may hereafter be held under this settlement, and the proceeds and income thereof to vest in other real and personal estate, so often and whenever it shall be thought proper, and that said estate and its income, and every investment thereof and its income shall always be and remain subject to the provisions of this settlement, in nowise liable or subject to her said husband, or to the payment of any of his hebts, nor shall he have any part thereof; and upon this further trust that the said Robert S. Gordon jun., his heirs, executors, and administrators, shall have a lien on and may from time to time reimburse, satisfy and pay himself and themselves out of the said estate for all such necessary and reasonable charges as he or they shall sustain or be put unto by reason of his being made party to these presents, or transacting anything pursuant thereto.” William M. Jennings died in June, 1848, leaving his wife Mary M. surviving him, who is still living. Gordon, the trustee, died sometime in the year 1848, and the plaintiff Thomas C. Campbell, was appointed trustee in his place, by an order of this court made in January, 1849. At the date of the deed of trust a portion of the real estate thereby conveyed was incumbered by a prior mortgage executed by one Cooper, a former owner, to John Reed. And on the 1st of May, 1846, after the trust deed was executed and recorded, Jennings and wife executed a second mortgage upon the same premises to Aaron Low, to secure the payment of §500, money loaned to them, or one of them; the mortgagors as well as Gordon the trustee, suppressing, as the defendant alledged in her answer, the fact of the existence of the trust deed, and representing that the title to the land mortgaged was in the mortgagors, and that they had good
right and lawful authority to mortgage the same. Low had died, and the defendant was his executrix. The amount secured by the second mortgage not being paid when it became due, the defendant, on the 23d of May, 1849, purchased of C. J. Ruggles the prior mortgage given to Reed, and the same was foreclosed. At the foreclosure sale, on the 20th of August, 1849, the mortgaged premises were purchased by C. W. Swift, for $1065; and according to the terms of sale the purchase money was paid to the attorney, Mr. Dean, on the 30th of August. After paying the amount due upon the mortgage, with the costs of the foreclosure, there was a surplus of $553,59, still remaining in the hands of the attorney, awaiting the order of the court. The defendant insisted that by the terms of the trust deed, and by the laws of the land, Mary M. Jennings had a right to execute the mortgage to Low, and that the same was valid, and, at the time of the foreclosure sale, was a subsisting lien upon the premises. She therefore claimed that she was legally or equitably entitled to the surplus moneys, or so much thereof as would be sufficient to pay the amount of the mortgage given to her testator, with interest, in preference to the said Mary M. Jennings, or her trustee.
The cause was heard at a special term, without a jury, and judgment was ordered to be entered for the plaintiff for $553,39, and interest. And the defendant appealed.
G. Dean, for the appellant.
Campbell & Dodge, for the plaintiff.

Opinion:
Basculo, J.
Among the trusts in this peculiar and complicated deed I find the following: " And upon this further trust, that he the said Robert S. Gordon jun., his heirs, executors, and administrators, shall and may in his and their discretion, control, manage, sell, dispose of, vest and reinvest the said real and personal estate, and the income thereof, as shall be deemed most advantageous, rendering to the said Mary M. Jennings so much thereof of principal or income-as may be necessary and proper for the maintenance and support of herself and family, and that her sole and separate receipt therefor shall be a sufficient acquittance." This clause confers upon the trustee certain powers and duties which take the trust out of that class of passive or formal trusts abolished by the revised statutes, and bring it within the cases of Mason v. Jones, (2 Barb. S. C. Rep. 229,) and Gott v. Cook, (7 Paige, 521.) The trustee may control, manage, sell and dispose of the estate and the income thereof, " and pay over the same for her support and maintenance." It is therefore sub•stantially a trust to receive the rents and profits and apply the same to her use, within the terms of the statute. I think, therefore, that the trust deed was valid in its inception.
But there is another question, which was not raised nor considered at the special term. It is whether the execution of the mortgage by Mrs. Jennings was not a good execution of the power given her by the deed? Upon a careful examination of this instrument I have arrived at the conclusion that the cestui que trust is given full power of disposition of the estate after the death of her husband, and the same power during his life, with his assent; and that the mortgage, having been executed by both of them, conveyed the estate. The judgment below should therefore be reversed without costs.