Field v. Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n

[312]

DRAPEAU, J.

Plaintiff, Maria de la Cinta Povedano Field, the widow of Walter J. Field, seeks to recover certain personal property having an approximate value of $42,000 which is held by defendant as trustee under a declaration of trust. The children and grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Field, beneficiaries under the trust, are joined as parties plaintiff.

When the declaration of trust was executed in January of 1928, the trustor, Walter J. Field, placed in trust four insurance policies on his own life, two of which were issued in 1887 and 1894, respectively, and the- other two in 1900. The trust provided that after the death of trustor, the net income from the corpus should be paid to the widow and seven named children in equal shares, and upon the death of the survivor of the widow and such children, the net estate should be divided equally among the then living grandchildren. The trust also contained spendthrift provisions prohibiting the transfer of any interest therein by the beneficiaries, and a clause that if any provision of said trust be judicially declared invalid, the remaining provisions should be effective nevertheless.

At the time the declaration of trust was executed, the wife of the trustor, plaintiff Maria de la Cinta Povedano Field, by a writing attached thereto declared that she had read and was fully acquainted with the contents of the trust, and in consideration of the benefits thereby conferred upon her, consented to, approved, ratified and confirmed the same, expressly waiving all of her community interest in the insurance policies.

After the trustor’s death in 1931, his estate was probated, said plaintiff Maria being the sole distributee by virtue of assignments to her from the seven children. The insurance policies were collected and the proceeds invested by defendant trustee in stocks and bonds.

The complaint alleges that plaintiff Maria was born in Spain in 1878; that she and decedent trustor were married in Costa Rica in 1902 and moved to California in 1920, bringing the insurance policies with them; that the premiums thereon were paid out of joint earnings and accumulations of the parties; that her husband and other members of her family conversed with Maria in Spanish; that she did not learn to read or understand the English language until 1932. Also, at the time she signed the waiver, no explanation was given her of its legal effect, her husband stating “that her signature was a mere technical formality” in the transfer of property entirely owned by him and “that she had no right