133 F.2d 50 | D.C. Cir. | 1943
This is a suit to determine the validity of a devise in a trust. The testator, John A. Baker, died domiciled in the District of Columbia on May 6, 1929. All his real estate was in the District. His will provided in Clause 9 that on the death of his daughter-in-law, Mary G. Baker, one-fourth of a trust fund should be paid to National Savings and Trust Co. as trustee “to pay therefrom as follows: One-third thereof to a committee of five white persons who have been continuously residents of Prince Georges County, Maryland, five years, each from a different section of said county, to be applied by said committee in its discretion for the medical welfare, support and care of indigent and indigent sick white persons who are living and have lived continuously in said county five years, said committee to be selected and appointed, annually, by the pastors for
Mary G. Baker died on July 30, 1937. From the time of her death until 1939 the Trust Company distributed income to committees and the committees distributed it in accordance with the will. A question was then raised as to the validity of Clause 9, and the trustee asked the court for instructions. Relatives of the testator contend that Clause 9 is invalid. The District Court upheld it as creating a valid charitable trust.
Charitable trusts of indefinite duration, for vaguely-defined beneficiaries, have long been enforceable in the District of Columbia.
Courts tend, unhampered by any fixed conflict-of-laws rule, to sustain charitable trusts which do not violate the policy of any state concerned.
At all pertinent times, a trust of the sort here involved has been enforceable according to the law of the District of Columbia. Not only do the laws of Maryland and Virginia now permit individuals, as distinguished from unincorporated associations,
Affirmed.
Ould v. Washington Hospital for Foundlings, 95 U.S. 303, 24 L.Ed. 450; Washington Loan & Trust Co. v. Hammond, 51 App.D.C. 260, 278 F. 569; 2 Bogert, Trusts and Trustees (1935), § 322.
Va.Acts, 1914, c. 234, Va.Code, 1936, § 587; Moore v. Downham, 166 Va. 77, 184 S.E. 199.
Laws of Md., 1931, c. 453, Md.Code, 1939, Art. 16, § 279.
Cf. Beale, Conflict of Laws (1935) § 295.1.
Handley v. Palmer, C.C., 91 F. 948; Id., 3 Cir., 103 F. 39; American Bible Soc. v. Healy, 153 Mass. 197, 26 N.E. 404, 10 L.R.A. 766; Fellows v. Miner, 119 Mass. 541. Cf. Vidal v. Girard’s Executors, 2 How. 127, 43 U.S. 127, 192, 196, 11 L.Ed. 205, distinguishing and disapproving Trustees of Philadelphia Baptist Ass’n v. Hart, 4 Wheat. 1, 17 U.S. 1, 4 L.Ed. 499; Jones v. Habersham, 107 U.S. 174, 179, 2 S.Ct. 336, 27 L.Ed. 401; Klumpert v. Vrieland, 142 Iowa 434, 121 N.W. 34; Mount v. Tuttle, 183 N.Y. 358, 76 N.E. 873, 2 L.R.A.,N.S., 428, 437; Scott, Trusts (1939) §§ 123, 398.1.
Cross v. United States Trust Co., 131 N.Y. 330, 30 N.E. 125, 15 L.R.A. 608, 27 Am.St.Rep. 597; Dammert v. Osborn, 140 N.Y. 30, 35 N.E. 407.
Dammert v. Osborn, 140 N.Y. 30, 35 N.E. 407; Fellows v. Miner, 119 Mass. 541.
Cf. Fitzgerald v. Doggett’s Executor, 155 Va. 112, 155 S.E. 129, 134. The committees created under Clause 9 are not unincorporated associations but independent groups of individuals, since nothing passes from an earlier committee to a later one.