Opinion ID: 382844
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Construction of Trust Instrument

Text: 12 Robinson correctly says the applicable law requires that the trust instrument be examined as a whole and that it be construed to give effect to the settlor's intention. 4 Application of United States Trust Co. of N.Y., 114 N.Y.S.2d 336 (Sup.Ct.1952). 13 Robinson then says the instrument's remainder provisions indicate that the issue of Decedent's children are intended remainder beneficiaries, and that it was Decedent's expressed intent that the remainder interest reside first in her children and next in the issue of her children, with the reversionary power of appointment to take effect only in the event she survived her sons and all issue of her sons. He finds that intention in the language passing a son's interest to his children (i. e., as his next of kin) if the son dies before age 30, and in the absence of any indication that the interests of her son's children shall exist only in those circumstances. 14 Whatever may be said of other portions of the trust instrument, the language establishing the reserved testamentary power of appointment is clear and unambiguous, and its plain language must therefore control. Nothing in the remainder provisions renders the power of appointment provision ambiguous. Although, as Robinson notes, the trust remainder provisions leave unanswered questions relating to the disposition of the trust remainder, 5 those questions have no relevance when the provision at issue, that is, the provision reserving the testamentary power of appointment, is clear and susceptible of but one interpretation. 15 Robinson would have us ignore the plain and unambiguous language of the settlor. We cannot. The duty of a court is to construe a trust instrument as written. It may not, under the guise of construction or otherwise, make a new trust agreement for the parties or read into the trust instrument provisions not expressly there or not arising necessarily from the ordinary meaning of the words used. No technical rules of construction nor artificial analysis of language used may defeat settlor's intention where that intention is manifest in the language of the trust instrument itself. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. v. Callan, 246 N.Y. 481, 159 N.E. 405 (Ct.App.1927); In re Fields' Trust, 302 N.Y. 262, 97 N.E.2d 896 (Ct.App.1952). 16 The trust provision creating the power of appointment provides in pertinent part: 17 (I)n the event that both said Clarence Robinson and Kent Robinson ... shall die before the (Decedent) ..., then upon the death of (Decedent) ..., the (trustees) ... shall pay, transfer and set over the principal of the said trust fund to such person or persons as the (Decedent) ..., shall by her last will and testament appoint and direct and in the manner her said will provided. 18 It is clear from this language that Decedent intended the power of appointment to become effective if her sons predeceased her. There is nothing to suggest that Decedent intended that an additional prerequisite to the power of appointment becoming effective be that she also survive all issue of her sons. If Decedent had intended the latter, it would have been a simple matter for her to have included appropriate language, in much the same way as she did in the remainder provisions that an interest of a son in certain circumstances shall pass to his next of kin. She did not choose to include such language, and we cannot do so for her. The plain language of the trust instrument must be construed to render the power of appointment effective upon Decedent's surviving her sons.