Opinion ID: 2284440
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Nature of the Class

Text: Undeniably, Margaret Edes sought to confer the benefits of secure housing and companionship on a particular class of persons, creating an interest in its members distinct from that of the general public in the administration of those benefits. Nevertheless, we must decide whether the standards established in the Edes will, the charter, and the by-laws sufficiently narrow the class of potential beneficiaries. We conclude that they do. The Trustees argue that the class of potential beneficiaries includes all women and so is limitless, because any woman could possibly become poor and widowed. They contend that membership in the beneficiary class is not limited by threshold criteria as the beneficiary class was in Alco Gravure.  In that case, the court defined the class as the employees of corporations in which [the settlor] was involved and the employees of successors of such corporations. 64 N.Y.2d at 466, 490 N.Y.S.2d at 120, 479 N.E.2d at 756 (emphasis added). We think there are definite criteria narrowing the instant class and identifying its present members with at least as much particularity as the limitation in Alco Gravure. The will and charter require the beneficiary to be (1) female, (2) indigent, (3) aged, and (4) widowed. The by-laws further require her (5) to be in good health (certifiably) and (6) to have been for at least five years immediately preceding the date of application [a] resident[] of Georgetown (although the Board has discretion to waive this requirement on unanimous vote). [12] Moreover, the Trustees' own representations provide evidence that the class of potential beneficiaries is limited. Their reason for seeking the sale and transfer of the home was, according to the probate complaint, that [i]n recent years, the number of applications from the group of beneficiaries specified in the Edes will, namely `aged and indigent Widows residing, or to reside, within ... Georgetown' has decreased significantly, and that [a]lthough the Trustees have actively sought to attract aged and indigent Georgetown widows, very few applications have been received from this group. At oral argument they cited as a partial reason for transferring the functions of the Edes Home to the Washington Home the difficulty of finding aged, indigent widows in sufficiently good health to satisfy the by-laws' requirement, and the unwillingness of otherwise eligible residents to risk living in a home where an illness requiring nursing care (which the Home does not provide) would result in expulsion.