Court Opinion

ID: 9770660
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:18:26.746178+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:19.755120
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
PER CURIAM.
In its motion for rehearing or in the alternative for transfer to the court en banc plaintiff says, citing 41 Am.Jur., Perpetuities, § 30, and 70 C.J.S. Perpetuities § 13, that the executory devise here may take effect beyond the period specified by the rule against perpetuities and is void. We have examined the cases cited under the general statements to this effect in the aforesaid two citations and we find that there was in each no time limitation in any case within which the condition was to take effect. The opinion follows the rules set forth in A.L.I.Rest.Prop. §§ 370 g and 386 j, that “An executory interest so limited as to become possessory at the end of a precisely computable period of time, as for example at the end of twenty-five years, is also not subject to a condition precedent, and so is excluded from the rule (against perpetuities).” (Parentheses added.)
Plaintiff also raises the point that the matter of the propriety of the trial court’s ruling in allowing plaintiff’s counsel $3,000.00 attorneys’ fees and charging them against the trust estate of Mrs. Griffin is not preserved for review because it was not presented to the trial court by way of motion for new trial. Plaintiff’s position is that a motion for new trial on the matter is required by Supreme Court Rule 79.03, V.A.M.R., and defendants, having failed to file such motion, are precluded from raising it in this court.
Rule 79.03 expressly excepts from those matters which must be presented to the trial court in a motion for new trial for the preservation for appellate review, “questions of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment in cases tried as provided by Rule 73.01.” This was a court-tried case under Rule 73.01, and therefore defendants properly preserved their right to challenge plaintiff’s allowance of attorneys’ fees by their timely notice of appeal. See Handlan v. Handlan, 362 Mo. 1180, 247 S.W.2d 715, 718 [2], where it was held on this precise question that the sufficiency of the evidence to support allowances of attorneys’ fees and expenses made by the trial court could be challenged by defendants on appeal even though they failed to file a motion for new trial.
We have examined the other matters presented and they are without merit. The motions for rehearing or in the alternative for transfer to the court en banc are overruled.