Opinion ID: 1927683
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Estate of Elmer E.

Text: The will of Elmer E., who died in April 1978, created a trust of which Elmer's sister Louise W. is the life income beneficiary, Shriners Hospital of Massachusetts the remainderman, and Depositors Trust Company of Augusta the trustee. The trustee was authorized to invade the principal of this trust if necessary to insure the comfort, support, maintenance and happiness of my said sister, and was given broad powers of investment. Soon after the trust was set up, Depositors decided that, to achieve proper diversification, it should sell the 750 shares of AT & T stock that constituted a quarter of the trust principal. Louise objected, believing that her brother would want her to retain that stock and that diversification would produce less return for herself as the income beneficiary. On February 22, 1979, Louise petitioned the Waldo County Probate Court to direct the trustee to retain the shares. Judge Barrett heard the matter on July 3, 1979. By December 1981, more than two years after the hearing, Judge Barrett had made no decision, and Depositors' attorney wrote to the Waldo County Register of Probate detailing his unsuccessful attempts to that date to obtain a ruling from the judge. In 1982 the Committee on Judicial Responsibility and Disability investigated a formal complaint filed with it alleging excessive delay in Judge Barrett's decision of another case. The Elmer E. delay also came to the Committee's attention, but the Committee decided at that time not to pursue further the allegations against the respondent. In its letter of December 9, 1982, informing the respondent of its decision to dismiss the complaint against him, the Committee made no specific reference to the Elmer E. case, but did issue the following general warning: [T]he Committee wants its records to reflect that it is not endorsing the view that a judge can properly discharge his judicial responsibilities by declining to decide a case properly submitted to the court. Judge Barrett still has not issued any decision in Elmer E., even though now more than seven years have passed since the matter was submitted to him for decision following hearing. Confronted with this long delay, the respondent defends himself by asserting that he has intentionally withheld decision in order to preserve the status quo existing at the time the 1979 petition was filed and that he thereby has fulfilled the obligation he conceives he owes to the testator to see to it that the trust is administered for Louise's happiness. He states that the primary purpose of his nondecision is to foster a good working relationship between the corporate trustee and Louise.