Court Opinion

ID: 9606018
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:45:39.83526+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:31.691384
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I concur in the judgment but believe that the cases of Gray v. Union Trust Co., 171 Cal. 637 [154 P. 306], *500and Bixby v. Hotchkis, 58 Cal.App.2d 445 [136 P.2d 597], should be overruled, and that our decision in this case should be based upon a sounder ground.
As I read the opinion of the Chief Justice, his reasoning follows this pattern: Where a trust is created by the trustor, with the income to be paid to the trustor for life, and on his death the corpus is to be distributed to the heirs of the trustor under the laws of intestate succession in effect at the time of his death, the instrument is to be construed as not creating a remainder in the trustor’s heirs. His principal reason for that construction is that it will be presumed that such was the trustor’s intention.
As I see it the main reason for such rule of construction springs from considerations of public policy which compels its application to cases of this character. Some of the results flowing from such a rule are that the trust may be terminated by the trustor although declared to be irrevocable (as in the case at bar), and the trustor may defeat any claim of his heirs by devising the property by will to others. Those results are desirable and stem from the well-established principle that the courts look with disfavor upon the “tying up” of property for long periods of time without any concomitant proper economic interest being served. That policy against “tying up” property is manifest. (See Civ. Code, § 715; 20 Cal.Jur. 1033 et seq.) Therefore, I believe it may be said that the rule has adequate basis.
Accepting that as the basis, there is no foundation left for Gray v. Union Trust Co., supra, or Bixby v. Hotchkis, supra. In the Gray case it was apparently accepted that in a case such as we have here the rule would apply, but it did not apply there because the heirs were to be determined by the intestate succession law as of the date of the trust instrument rather than the date of the trustor’s death, and in the Bixby case the test date was the time the trust terminated by its terms, that is, at the end of 20 years. I can see no valid reason for a different rule to be applied in those eases. The time at which the laws of succession were to be examined to ascertain the heirs according to the trust instrument is not sufficient to show an intent by the trustor to create a remainder in the heirs. I do not believe, therefore, that these cases can be realistically distinguished and cannot agree with the decision of the Chief Justice in his attempt to do so. They should be overruled.