249 Pa. 483 | Pa. | 1915
Opinion by
By the will of Peter L. Kimberly, deceased, all his estate was given to John C. Owsley, of Sharon, Pennsylvania,.Ira B. Bassett, of Cleveland, Ohio,, and George A. Baird, of Chicago, Illinois, as “executors and trustees,” in trust, with defined powers to enable them conveniently and without sacrifice to marshal the assets and make distribution in kind where such course should seem advisable. A period of five years from death of testator was allowed for settlement, with permission to make earlier distribution, according to their discretion. While the entire estate was formally given in trust, as to seventy-seven per centum thereof no special trust, beyond that of administration, was declared ; that portion was disposed of by legacies to various individuals,., the amount for each person being designated as a certain percentage of the whole estate. The remaining twenty-three per centum was given in the third “paragraph” or item of the will, upon the following express active trust: “After providing for the payment of the legacies and bequests ......above mentioned, the aforesaid trustees and executors, for charitable purposes, shall use and apply the rest, residue and remainder.......to such charitable uses, objects and purposes, as they may from time to time select or deem most desirable; hereby giving to them the full and absolute power to select and apply the .whole of said rest, residue and remainder......to charitable
The administration of the estate having been completed, and the final account of the executors filed and confirmed, the three trustees named received the Charity Fund, and thereafter filed an account, showing the receipt of $460,857.71, besides 27,140 shares of various corporate stocks, as to which we find no proof of value. The disbursements were, among others, donations to individuals and institutions, amounting to $13,777.50 made by the accountants in the exercise of the power and discretion vested in them to dispense the fund in question for charitable uses, objects and purposes. The credits taken for these charitable donations were excepted to by the attorney general of Pennsylvania, on the grounds, (1) “that the language of the will creating the trust confers no power or authority upon the trustees to dispense any part of the trust fund to individuals, particularly to individuals who are not residents of Pennsylvania, and further that the payments made as charitable donations to the individuals named in the account are not such as are authorized by the will,” (2) “that none of the corporations, institutions or organizations to which donations have been made by the trustees have been organized or are being operated or carried on for such charitable uses, objects and purposes as are contemplated by the third paragraph of testator’s will, and (3) “that corporations chartered by other states, and which perform none of their corporate functions within the State of Pennsylvania, are not within the class of charitable institutions to which donations may be made by the trustees, and therefore none of the donations made to such foreign corporations are proper credits.” The exceptions to the account were referred to an auditor, who dismissed them all, filing an elaborate report which was subsequently approved by the court below; the attorney general has appealed.
The auditor carefully reviews the details relating to
We quote liberally from the report of the learned auditor, for, after reading the cases and making a most thorough examination of the record, we concur with the court below, that, in the main, he properly disposes of the attorney general’s exceptions, in “a clear, concise and convincing manner,” that could not well be improved upon. Practically, the only point pressed in appellant’s printed argument concerns the donations to nonresident charities; as to this, the auditor correctly states: “The exception based upon the claim that the trustees have no power to appropriate any part of the charity fund to individuals who are nonresidents of Pennsylvania,- or to Corporations or associations incorporated or organized in other states, and operating exclusively outside of Pennsylvania, cannot be sustained.
The only donation which has caused us particular concern is that to the F. H. Buhl Club; but the facts found by the auditor, which are not attacked, show that, while this organization is called a club, its purpose is not merely social. He says: “Its operations are the result of a magnificent charitable gift, of perhaps a quarter of a million dollars, made by Frank H. Buhl, for the benefit of the people of Sharon, in the form of a well equipped club house. In this building there is kept and maintained a. valuable library of over 10,000 volumes, and facilities not only for recreation and amusement, but for various kinds of educational improvement. The membership fee is merely nominal, and all persons who are respectable are received as members. If the institution operated nothing but its library, it would be a legal charity (Donohugh’s App., 86 Pa. 306). It is not supported by its members; for every dollar paid by a member, from two dollars to two dollars and a half are given back to him in educational and other advantages, which cost the club that amount in cash. The unavoidable deficit is made up by charitable gifts each year. The institution has no capital stock, and financial profit is foreign to its purpose and impossible in its management. The benefits it gives in the way of recreation and educational improvement are of a kind most needed by the laboring classes, clerks and salesmen, who constitute the majority of its membership.” It further appears that one of the charter purposes of this institution is the “encouragement of education,” and that it has entertainments and facilities which are open to the general public; in fact, this so-called club, in many respects, appears to be much like the various branches of the Young Men’s Christian Association existing throughout our. country. . On the whole, we are not prepared to say that, considering the broad discretion vested in the trustees under the testator’s will, the $100 given to the institution in question
In disposing of the other appeals in this case, we put the costs on the residuary estate of the testator in each instance, for, while, there as here, we found no reversible error, yet, we were impressed that it was important to the successful administration of the charitable trust created by the will of Peter L. Kimberly that the various questions raised by all these appeals should be finally determined, and that, probably, the several records had been brought before us largely with that end in view; we shall follow the same course in this instance.
The assignments of error are all overruled and the decree is affirmed; the costs to be paid out of the estate in the hands of the trustees.