125 Misc. 381 | N.Y. Sur. Ct. | 1925
This is an application for the construction of paragraph 6 of the will of the testatrix. The will has been admitted to probate and this question has been reserved for determination by a supplemental decree. That paragraph reads as follows:
“ Sixth. All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, real and personal, I give, devise and bequeath to the United States Trust Company of New York, in trust, however, for the purpose of establishing a fund for chemical research, which fund shall be known as the Herman Frasch Foundation for Chemical Research, I direct that the said trustee shall hold, manage, invest and reinvest the said fund, collect the rents, issues and profits thereof and after paying its proper charges and expenses, pay over the net income therefrom to one or more incorporated institutions in the United States, which shall be selected by the said trustee after advising with The American Chemical Society, upon the condition that the said institutions shall agree that the money so received shall be devoted to research in the field of agricultural chemistry, with the object of attaining results which shall be of practical benefit to the agricultural development of the United States. The payment of said income to the institutions so selected shall continue for the period of five years after my death, and before the expiration of the said five years, the trustee shall request The American Chemical Society to examine into the work done by the said institutions with the funds received from the Foundation, and to report to the trustee whether in its opinion, satisfactory progress has been made with the funds of the Foundation, towards the attainment of such practical results, and if the said Society shall report that in its opinion satisfactory progress has not been made by any institution, the trustee shall thereupon cease to make payments from the Foundation to that institution, and may select another institution in the same manner as above outlined, which institution, when so selected, shall receive such payments for the further term of five years, and every five years after my death the trustee shall obtain such a report*383 from The American Chemical Society, and shall either continue to make payments to the institutions then receiving such payments for the further term of five years, or may select other institutions as above provided, to receive the said payments for the ensuing five years. The trustee is authorized to use so much of the income from the said fund as may be necessary to pay the expenses and compensation of the American Chemical Society for advising and reporting as above provided.”
The validity of this trust is attacked by certain next of kin who would take by intestacy if the gift is void. They contend that the trust is invalid and is not saved from the statute against perpetuities by section 12 of the Personal Property Law and section 113 of the Real Property Law, which are re-enactments of the Tilden Act of 1893. Those sections provide that no gift, grant or bequest or devise to religious, educational, charitable or benevolent uses, in other respects valid, shall be deemed invalid by reason of the indefiniteness or uncertainty of the persons designated as beneficiaries in the instrument creating the trust. It is claimed that the trust is not within the protection of the statute, because
(1) The object and the purposes of the trust are not charitable;
(2) The trust income might be diverted under the language of the will to beneficiaries operating for private profit or as a business enterprise;
(3) The beneficiaries are indefinite and uncertain so as to make it impracticable for the trustee, or the Supreme Court if invoked, to administer the trust.
The testator’s design, briefly summarized, was
(a) To vest control in the trustee, the United States Trust Company;
(b) To use the income for chemical research;
(c) To pay it to certain institutions to be selected with the advice of the American Chemical Society;
(d) Upon condition that the institutions agree to devote the funds to research in the field of agricultural chemistry to obtain results of practical benefit to the agricultural development of the United States.
It is estimated that the capital of the fund available for this purpose will amount to $1,000,000.
(1) Extrinsic evidence of the surrounding circumstances and expressed intentions of the testatrix was received by me in aid of interpretation. (Butterworth v. Keeler, 219 N. Y. 446, 451.) The husband of testatrix had accumulated his fortune in the chemical industry. It appears that the testatrix first sought information as to specific educational institutions engaged in the general
The plan proposed here meets the test of this definition and the first ground of attack against its validity must be overruled. (Matter of Robinson, 203 N. Y. 380; Matter of Cunningham, 206 id. 601; Butterworth v. Keeler, 219 id. 446; Matter of MacDowell, 217 id. 454; Sherman v. Richmond Hose Co., 230 id. 462.)
(2) The next of kin contend that the decision of the Court of Appeals in Matter of Shattuch (193 N. Y. 446) is conclusive authority that the trust is void because the income might be diverted to private enterprises. It is claimed that under the word “ institutions,”
The second ground of invalidity, therefore, has no application under the more recent authorities to the testamentary design here.
(3) No particular difficulty can arise in the administration of this trust. The trustee and the advisory association, the American Chemical Society, are both New York corporations. Under section 12 of the Personal Property Law, the Attorney-General is empowered to represent the beneficiaries in the enforcement of the trust, and it is made his duty to compel, by judicial decree in the Supreme Court, the application of the fund to the public use contemplated by the testatrix. It appears from the evidence that agricultural departments are maintained by many of the universities of the United States. Many of the States, including New York State, maintain or help to support agricultural institutions devoted in part to agricultural chemistry for the public benefit.
The provisions of the will relating to gifts for charitable purposes are to be construed in a broad and liberal spirit and the construction that will uphold the validity of a public trust is to be favored. (Matter of MacDowell, supra.)
I hold, therefore, that the 6th paragraph of the will created a valid trust. Submit supplemental decree on notice construing the will accordingly.