Estate of Starr

197 Cal.App.2d 582 (1961) Estate of GEORGE WILLIAM STARR, Deceased. CROCKER-ANGLO NATIONAL BANK, as Trustee, etc., Petitioner and Appellant,

v.

EDGAR H. ROWE, as Guardian ad Litem, etc., et al., Objectors and Respondents.

Civ. No. 19601. California Court of Appeals. First Dist., Div. One.

Dec. 1, 1961. Young, Rabinowitz & Chouteau and H. S. Young for Petitioner and Appellant. [583]

Eugene H. O'Donnell, in pro. per., Bronson, Bronson & McKinnon and Nicholas, Kolliner & Van Tassel for Objectors and Respondents.

BRAY, P. J.

Appellant, trustee under the trusts created by the will of George William Starr, deceased, appeals from an order instructing said trustee, and from that portion of an order approving the eighth account and report of said trustee which disapproves of the trustee's action in treating certain stock dividends as income and orders the trustee to allocate to principal such stock dividends (or their market value, if sold).

Question Presented

Does the clause of the will dealing with distribution of "all increase in value of corpus" clearly indicate the intent of the testator, or is the distribution of the stock split or dividend to be determined by the "Pennsylvania" or "Massachusetts" rule?

Record

In 1944 the will of George William Starr was admitted to probate. The will created residuary trusts, "Trust A" for the benefit of his wife for life, "Trust B" for the benefit of his daughter for life and "Trust C" for the benefit of his grandchildren for life with remainder to his great- grandchildren. Trust A provides that 80 per cent of income should be paid monthly to his wife, in no event less than $500, and in the event less than $500 per month is available the balance is to come from the rest of the net income and corpus. Trust B provides the same terms for the daughter. Both trusts provide that upon the death of the first to die of the wife and daughter, the share held by that decedent should be added to the corpus established for the survivor. (The wife died recently.) After death of the survivor of the wife and daughter and after payment of a specific bequest, Trust C takes effect.