266 P. 526 | Cal. | 1928
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *643 This proceeding has arisen out of an endeavor on the part of John Randolph Haynes and his wife, Dora Haynes, to procure a final ruling of the courts *644 upon the validity, in whole or in part, of a certain trust sought to be established by them and each of them under the name of "The John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation." The method employed to secure such ruling is to be found in the terms of a clause in the document whereby said trust was sought to be created and which reads as follows:
"Paragraph Sixteenth: In the event that this instrument does not create a valid, charitable trust, or, if it be finally adjudicated that any purpose set forth herein be invalid, the sum of five hundred dollars ($500.00) out of the corpus of the estate, shall belong to, and be forthwith paid to John Collier."
The present litigation was initiated in the superior court in and for the county of Alameda in the form of a proceeding instituted by the said John Collier under the provisions of sections 1138, 1139, and
The document by the terms of which John Randolph Haynes and his wife, Dora Haynes, have undertaken to create and to devote certain of their properties to sustain a trust under the title of "The John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation" is before us, and the substance and terms thereof, after the recitals of the properties to be allocated thereto and the trustees to be invested therewith, reads in part as follows:
"Paragraph Sixth: The trustees shall hold the said trust estate in trust for the following uses and purposes:
"Sec. I. To promote and assist in promoting and obtaining, maintaining and making improvements in the structure and methods of government, national, state and/or local, by obtaining, protecting, preserving, and/or furthering, by any or all legitimate ways,
"(a) The public ownership and operation of public utilities.
"(b) Direct legislation, now known as the Initiative, Referendum and Recall.
"(c) Such improvements in the direct, popular nomination and election of public officials as will enable the electorate to vote more intelligently and efficiently; simplify *646 nomination and election procedure; and insure a more adequate representation in government of the important groups.
"(d) Assisting in the making, amending, and/or reviewing of city charters, county charters, and State and national constitutions.
"Sec. II. (a) To improve living conditions of the working people by investigating the causes of poverty, preventing the operation of such causes, and remedying or ameliorating the conditions resulting therefrom, by any legitimate means.
"(b) To study, investigate and encourage, the introduction into the United States of America of the cooperative system of selling and purchasing food, household and other requirements, under the system generally known as the `Rochdale System of Cooperation.'
"Sec. III. To improve working conditions for men, women and children by:
"(a) Investigating the causes of industrial accidents and diseases; including, among other things, the relation of hours of labor to the health of workers, and the conditions under which work is performed;
"(b) Helping, by all lawful means, to prevent the continuance of conditions inimical to the health, welfare and safety of workers, and helping to secure better working conditions for them.
"Sec. IV. To induce, encourage and support industrial cooperation, to the end that justice may be done to employer and employee alike, and harmony be established and maintained between them, and industrial hatred and strife abolished, thereby benefiting mankind in general.
"Sec. V. To encourage and give educational opportunities for the study of —
"(a) Governmental problems and reforms furthering `Government of the people, by the people, and for the people';
"(b) Industrial problems with special reference to improvements in living and working conditions of the working people;
"(c) Social problems with special reference to improvements in health, sanitation and morals of the working people, *647 by paying wholly, or partially, lecturers and instructors on matters included in this Section V, and/or by furnishing appropriate books and literature on these matters, and/or by donations to institutions or organizations to be applied in furthering the causes in this section designated, and/or by assisting in obtaining or supporting, or helping to enforce legislation for such purposes, or any of them.
"Sec. VI. To further the improvement of the human race by aiding and encouraging the science of eugenics, which deals with the heritable qualities of the human race; and by aiding and encouraging the practicable application of the principles of that science.
"Sec. VII. To assist in securing, maintaining, enforcing and strengthening prohibition and other legislation, national, state and/or local, affecting the manufacture, and use and/or disposition of alcoholic beverages and/or intoxicating liquors and/or narcotic drugs by all lawful means and/or by investigating the operation and enforcement of laws and ordinances relating to those questions, and the results flowing therefrom.
"Sec. VIII. To promote justice for the American Indian in the United States by assisting in procuring legislation and/or by stimulating the proper enforcement of legislation to that end, and/or by assisting individual, or bodies of, Indians in obtaining that justice.
"Sec. IX. To assist in preserving and strengthening the rights of the citizens of The United States to `Freedom of speech . . . and peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances,' by donations to particular institutions or bodies, operating wholly or partially, permanently, or temporarily, for those purposes.
"Paragraph Seventh: In properly carrying out and aiding all and any of the purposes and objects of the Trust, the Trustees in general shall have full power and authority:
"Sec. I. To employ and pay attorneys, lecturers, writers, investigators, and such assistants and employees of every kind as they may deem necessary.
"Sec. II. To buy, print, publish, and/or distribute, by mail or otherwise, to whom they may think proper, appropriate pamphlets, cards, notices and information; *648
"Sec. III. To buy and distribute, by mail or otherwise, to whom they may think proper, copies of appropriate newspapers, magazines and books.
"Sec. IV. To disseminate by all lawful means, such information as in the judgment of the trustees may be useful in carrying out the purposes of this Trust.
"Sec. V. To draft and/or assist in drafting, appropriate bills and acts, laws, and other proposed legislation, and use all lawful means to have them introduced, passed, made effective, and enforced."
The trust thus sought to be created is in perpetuity to the trustees designated in the document establishing the same and to their successors to be chosen in the manner therein provided. The amount and value of the property with which the trustees are to be thus invested is but a comparatively small portion of the estate and properties of the creators thereof, and it is not for that reason objectionable to the provisions of law limiting the amount of a testator's or trustor's property which may be devoted to charitable uses. The immediate questions which are therefore presented to us for determination are as to whether the transfer of the properties set forth in said document to trustees in perpetuity for the advancement of the purposes which are set forth with so much detail in the foregoing excerpts from said instrument, or any considerable portion of such purposes, is void as in violation of the constitution and laws of this state against perpetuities.
[2] The constitution of this state provides in section 9 of article XX thereof that, "No perpetuities shall be allowed except for eleemosynary purposes." The term "eleemosynary" as thus used in the constitution has been held to be synonymous with "charitable" as used and understood in treaties and decisions upon the subject of trusts (Estate of Sutro,
"I. Promoting and assisting in promoting improvements in the structure and methods of government in the United States.
"II. Improving living and working conditions for the working people.
"III. Improving the economic conditions of the country.
"IV. Assisting cooperation between employer and employee.
"V. Assisting education.
"VI. Aiding the practicable application of the science of Eugenics. *650
"VII. Strengthening of prohibitive legislation affecting intoxicants and narcotics.
"VIII. Promoting justice for the American Indians.
"IX. Preserving the right of free speech and assembly."
The appellant herein does not seriously contend that the foregoing resume of the purposes for which the present trust is sought to be created does not bring it generally within the scope of charitable uses as defined in the foregoing decisions of this court. This being so, it is unnecessary to make more than a passing reference to such cases as Jackson v. Phillips, 14 Allen (96 Mass.), 539, upon which the appellant herein mainly relies, and which was decided in 1867, interpreting a trust attempted to be created by will in 1861, and which had for its purposes the creation of "a public sentiment that will put an end to human slavery in this country" and also "to secure the passage of laws granting women . . . the right to vote, to hold office, to hold, manage and devise property and all other civil rights enjoyed by men." As to the first of these declared purposes the Massachusetts supreme court held the trust to be valid, but as to the second invalid. The passing of the epoch in which this decision was written has caused its language to have little relation to social problems and its conclusions touching the political and other rights of women to be widely dissented from in later decisions from other jurisdictions. The trend of modern authority has been toward the upholding of trusts which have for their object the creation of a more enlightened public opinion, with a consequent change in laws having to do with human relations and rights in a republic such as ours; and hence it is that bequests of money to trustees for the attainment of woman's suffrage and other rights in the United States have been upheld. (Garrison v. Little,
[5] The main attack which the appellant makes upon this trust is not so much upon the expressed purposes of its creation, taken as a whole, as it is upon certain of the details thereof with respect to which he urges that these are too indefinite to be given effect. This charge of indefiniteness which the appellant makes against certain of the provisions of this trust is twofold. It is directed, first, against the beneficiaries of the trust, and, second, against the powers and functions of the trustees who are to seek to carry its provisions into effect. As to the first of these, it may be stated generally that the element of indefiniteness in the beneficiaries of a charitable trust is not only not an objection to its validity, but, as a rule, is of the essence of all charitable trusts of a public or quasi-public character. This principle was well established by this court in the case of Fay v. Howe,
In Estate of Hinckley, supra, from which the foregoing excerpt is taken, the court learnedly and exhaustively discussed the power of the courts of this state to assume equitable jurisdiction over the administration of trusts clearly charitable in their nature, and in so doing to apply the doctrine of cypres as a judicial power in directing trustees to carry into effect a general lawful and charitable intent on the part of the creators of the trust when such intent is manifest when the trustees are named and when the beneficiaries of the trust are ascertainable. The final sentence in the foregoing clause aids somewhat in determining its validity, since it is therein provided that the trustees are to be empowered to extend aid to particular Indians or groups of Indians in attaining those ends which the term "justice" as above defined connotes. We are therefore of the opinion that this particular clause in the trust instrument ought not in the first instance to be held invalid.[10] We are thus brought to the second objection which the appellant urges against the validity of this attempted trust foundation treated as a whole, which is that the powers and functions with which the trustees thereof are invested are too indefinite to justify the court in upholding it and by so doing is creating in them a perpetuity with practically unlimited powers. When, however, we take this lengthy and evidently carefully prepared document by the four corners and read it as a whole, we find that the statement of the appellant in urging this particular objection must be taken with much modification. In the first place it is evident from the reading of this document as a whole that the methods of exercise of the powers and functions with which its trustees are to be invested are in the main educational. The manifest object of the creators of this trust was that of the formation and direction of an enlightened public opinion with relation to the particular subjects to which in its detail it is related, and as the result of that educated and enlightened opinion to bring about the adoption of concrete legislation or the acceptance of certain clearly stated social or economic reforms. *656 The instrument is not lacking in certain definite directions to the trustees along these identical lines. The trustees are to conduct investigations as to the causes and prevention of poverty among working people and are also to investigate and encourage the adoption of a co-operative system of marketing; and generally to encourage and support industrial co-operation as between employers and employees. They are to afford educational opportunities for the study of governmental, industrial, and social problems and reforms, and they are to accomplish these objects by employing lecturers and instructors and by furnishing appropriate books and literature and by donations to institutions and organizations to be applied in the furtherance of the foregoing purposes. They are to buy, print, publish, and distribute pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, and books "and to disseminate by all lawful means such information as in the judgment of the trustees may be useful in carrying out the purposes of this trust." The foregoing will sufficiently indicate the scope of the general powers with which the trustees of this foundation are by its specific terms invested. That the means which these trustees are to thus employ in the furtherance of its purposes are to be "lawful means" is expressly stated in the document itself, and by such expression the creators of the trust have relieved its trustees of the imputation of the appellant that this was a so-called "lobbying trust" to bring about legislation of various kinds by disreputable and unlawful methods. In a word, we find nothing in this trust which conveys the remotest suggestion that the trustees thereof are to employ or that they would be justified in employing other than the usual upright, open, and approved methods by which foundations charitable in character and educational in method are wont to carry on their work. The present trust differs in no essential respect from numerous other like foundations in various parts of the country which are devoted to the achievement of some, though not, perhaps, of all, of the objects of this particular foundation, and which have been generally approved by the courts. The creators of this trust having, as recited therein, devoted a large part of their lives and a considerable portion of their fortune unselfishly to the promotion of the particular ideas of political and social *657 reform which they are now seeking to have perpetuated beyond the period of their natural lives through this foundation, are to be commended rather than criticised for their desire to render permanent their life work. This method of achieving immortality is all too rare, and while we may not all agree upon the question as to whether or not certain details of these projected reforms in our political or social life are practical or even altogether desirable, we may not for that reason hold this foundation to be invalid by virtue of the defects in its creation which are urged by the appellant herein.
The judgment is affirmed.
Curtis, J., Shenk, J., Langdon, J., Waste, C.J., Seawell, J., and Preston, J., concurred.