120 N.J. Eq. 432 | N.J. Ct. of Ch. | 1936
The trustees of the above entitled estate have applied for a partial payment of commissions to be charged against corpus covering the period of six years during which they have administered the estate. This application is made on an intermediate accounting which shows that the corpus of the estate has increased somewhat during the trusteeship and that thecorpus now amounts to approximately $2,000,000.
The trust estate will terminate upon the death of a life beneficiary who is now sixty-seven years old.
The trustees ask that they be presently allowed a commission on the corpus of $10,000 which would be slightly less than one-half of one per cent. on the value of the corpus. Notice of this application has been served upon all the parties interested and no one appeared in opposition to the granting of the allowance. It is, however, for the court to decide whether an allowance of commissions on the corpus is permissible at this time, and if so, whether it should be made and in what amount.
Under the statute, total commissions on corpus cannot aggregate more than five per cent. at the time of final accounting. *433
It would obviously be improper to make an allowance which would exhaust or endanger the maximum fees permissible, as in case of a substitution of trustees it would require the succeeding trustees to act without adequate compensation for conservation ofcorpus. In the case of In re Hibbler,
"The court should, in my judgment, be in a position hereafter to allow commissions to the trustee on the corpus of the estate not exceeding two per cent., according to the time during which he shall have charge of it, considering also the value of his services.
"This view leads to a denial of the application for further allowance to Mr. Voorhies out of the corpus."
These principles were reaffirmed by Chancellor Walker as vice-ordinary in the case of Lyon v. Bird,
In Conover v. Ellis,
There seems to be no case directly authorizing the payment of commissions to a trustee out of corpus on an intermediate account; but the power to do so seems to be clearly assumed in the decision of the court of errors and appeals in In re NewJersey Title Guarantee and Trust Co.,
It seems a necessary implication from the above opinion that payment of a small commission to the trustees on intermediate accounting would be proper under proper circumstances.
In the instant case the trustees have been active and diligent *435 in handling the corpus of the estate and under their administration it has increased in value. In view of the age of the beneficiary it is not to be expected that the trust will continue for the period of thirty or forty years mentioned in theNew Jersey Title Guarantee and Trust Co. Case, but that it will terminate in a much shorter time. This means that the amount of commissions to be allowed for future services will not be for a very large percentage of the entire life of the trust. Therefore, an allowance of less than one-half of one per cent. will not reduce the amount of commissions available for future services beyond a safe point.
The application for the allowance of $10,000 to be paid from the corpus on account of services will be granted.