Court Opinion

ID: 9718470
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:24:53.270599+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:59.539294
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Chief Justice Bell:
The majority Opinion states that the constitutional question herein raised was not decided in Catherwood Trust, 405 Pa. 61, 173 A. 2d 86, namely, whether the application of the Act of July 3, 1947, to trusts created prior to the effective date of the Act violated Article I, § §1 and 9, of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Prior to the Act of (1945) 1947, a life tenant had a vested property right in certain stock dividends and *438in certain corporate distributions, and it was repeatedly beld by this Court that any retroactive application of the Acts to a trust created prior thereto would violate the Constitution of Pennsylvania and the Constitution of the United States.
Cunningham Estate, 395 Pa. 1, 149 A. 2d 72; Warden Trust, 382 Pa. 311, 115 A. 2d 159; Pew Trust, 362 Pa. 468, 67 A. 2d 129; Crawford Estate, 362 Pa. 458, 67 A. 2d 124; Steele Estate, 377 Pa. 250, 103 A. 2d 409, and Jones Estate, 377 Pa. 473, 105 A. 2d 353, directly and specifically hold that the application of the Act of 1947 to trusts created prior thereto, would be unconstitutional. With these decisions, I strongly agree; my views are set forth at length in my Concurring and Dissenting Opinion in Catherwood Trust, 405 Pa. 78, 173 A. 2d 94.
For these reasons and under and because of these wise decisions, I dissent.