Court Opinion

ID: 9699377
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:21:26.019552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:49.466457
License: Public Domain

*310POMEROY, Justice,
dissenting.
The record in this case discloses that William A. Apple-gate, the testator, both at the time he executed his will and at the time of his death, was a domiciliary of the United States Virgin Islands. The will was probated and the estate proceedings were conducted in the District Court of the Virgin Islands, Division of St. Thomas and St. John, where the final account of the executor was filed, reviewed and confirmed. This very real connection of the decedent with a jurisdiction other than Pennsylvania is not adverted to by the Court; it does, however, point up problems which prompt this separate opinion.
Following devises of certain real property located in Sharon, Pennsylvania, the testator in Item THIRD of his will directed that “all the remainder of my property, be the same real, personal or mixed of whatsoever nature and wheresoever situate” be placed in trust for the purposes noted in the Court’s opinion. The record does not disclose the assets comprising the residuary estate, and so does not indicate whether or not it includes realty as well as personalty. To the extent that there is real property located outside Pennsylvania, however, it is doubtful that the court below had jurisdiction over the subject matter of this suit. See Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 276, and comments thereto (1971). As to personal property comprising the trust, see id. § 267.
In addition, it appears that, to the extent that the trust res consists of personal property, the court below may have erred in determining the questions presented here under Pennsylvania law. As noted in Section 268 of the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws:
“Construction of Trust Instrument
“(1) A will or other instrument creating a trust of interests in movables is construed in accordance with the rules of construction of the state designated for this purpose in the instrument.
“(2) In the absence of such a designation, the instrument is construed
*311“(a) as to matters pertaining to administration, in accordance with the rules of construction of the state whose local law governs the administration of the trust, and
“(b) as to matters not pertaining to administration, in accordánce with the rules of construction of the state which the testator or settlor would probably have desired to be applicable.”
Comment f to this section similarly observes:
“f. Matters not of administration, testamentary trusts. As to the rules of construction which relate to the disposition of the trust property rather than to the administration of the trust, the will is ordinarily construed in the case of movables in accordance with the rules of construction of the state of the testator’s domicil, even though the trust is to be administered in some other state.
“Although ordinarily the courts will apply the rule of construction of the testator’s domicil at death, it will not do so if the testator is found to have intended that the rule of construction of some other state should be applicable. Although when a trust is created by will, the will is ordinarily construed in accordance with the rules of the state of the testator’s domicil at death, the fact that he executed the will when domiciled in another state is usually sufficient to show that he presumably intended that the will should be construed in accordance with the rules of that state. So also, the fact that he executed the will in a state other than that of his domicil at the time when he executed it and at the time of his death may show an intention that the will should be construed in accordance with the rules of that state.”
See also Rice Estate, 8 Pa.D. & C.2d 379, 401-10 (O.C. Montgomery Co. 1956) (alternative holding) (applying similar provisions of Restatement of Conflict of Laws (1934)).*
Because the question of subject matter jurisdiction is not free from doubt, and because choice of law questions should *312be resolved before this case can be properly decided, I would vacate the decree and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. I therefore express no view at this time concerning the construction of this trust, the proper answers to which are far from clear. Cf. Restatement of Property §§ 294, 295 & comment k (1940). See generally, Casner, Class Gifts to Others than to “Heirs” or “Next of Kin”: Increase in the Class Membership, 51 Harv. L.Rev. 254 (1937).

As to real property included in the trust res, see Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws 277, and comment c (1971).