223 A.2d 397 | Conn. Super. Ct. | 1966
Most of the facts in this case are recited in Hebrew University Assn. v. Nye,
The plaintiff claims a gift inter vivos based on a constructive or symbolic delivery, and alternatively that because of the decedent's conduct and the plaintiff's action in reliance thereon the defendants are *344
estopped to deny the gift. As to the latter claim, if the plaintiff is in truth claiming an estoppel in pais the short answer to this claim is that equitable estoppel is available only for protection and cannot be used as a weapon of assault. Robinson v. Atterbury,
Examining the present case in the light of the foregoing, the court finds that the delivery of the memorandum coupled with the decedent's acts and declarations, which clearly show an intention to give and to divest herself of any ownership of the library, was sufficient to complete the gift. If the itemized memorandum which the decedent transmitted had been incorporated in a formal document, no one would question the validity of the gift. But formalism is not an end in itself. "Whatever the value of the notion of forms, the only use of the forms is to present their contents." Holmes in Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes — His Book Notices and Uncollected Letters and Papers, p. 167 (Shriver Ed.). This is not to suggest that forms and formalities do not serve a useful and sometimes an essential purpose. But where the purpose of formalities is being served, an excessive regard for formalism should not be allowed to defeat the ends of justice. The circumstances under which this gift was made — a public announcement at a luncheon attended by a head of state, accompanied by a document which identified in itemized form what was *346 being given — are a sufficient substitute for a formal instrument purporting to pass title.
Courts cannot be oblivious to the techniques of fund raising for charitable purposes. It is no small task to build a university library. Plans must be made, architects employed, cost estimates arrived *347
at, fund-raising committees named, solicitations made. The key to any such fund raising is the knowledge of the insatiable human desire to perpetuate one's name in brick and marble. "The longing for posthumous remembrance is an emotion not so weak as to justify us in saying that its gratification is a negligible good." Allegheny College v.National Chautauqua County Bank,
Although it is true that even in the case of a charity an imperfect gift will not be turned into a declaration of trust for no better reason than that it is imperfect; Organized Charities Assn. v. Mansfield,
The court recognizes, in arriving at this result, that it is abrogating in some respects the requirement of delivery in a case involving an intended gift inter vivos. Obviously, it would be neither desirable nor wise to abrogate the requirement of delivery in any and all cases of intended inter-vivos gifts, for to do so, even under the guise of enforcing equitable rights, might open the door to fraudulent claims. But neither does it mean that the present delivery requirement must remain inviolate. "Equity is not crippled . . . by an inexorable formula."Marr v. Tumulty,
Accordingly, judgment may enter declaring that the plaintiff is the legal and equitable owner of the "Yahuda Library" and has a right to the immediate possession of its contents.