First Western Bank & Trust Co. v. MacPherson

Opinion

FILES, P. J. This is an appeal from a portion of a decree disposing of assets of a dissolved charitable corporation, and from an order instructing a trustee regarding final distribution of the corpus of a testamentary trust. The two cases were consolidated for trial in the superior court. The facts were uncontroverted and may be summarized as follows:

Frank Herbert MacPherson died testate in Los Angeles County on April 5, 1932. His will provided that a trust be established for the benefit of his wife during her lifetime, and that following her death, certain sums be distributed to various beneficiaries from the remainder of the trust estate.

The will also provided: “(5). I direct said trustee to set aside and hold in trust the sum of Fifty Thousand ($50,000.00) Dollars, and after deducting from the income derived therefrom all charges and expenses in the administration thereof, including reasonable compensation payable to said trustee in the care, management and conservation thereof, I direct said trustee to pay the balance of said income, quarter-annually, to my sister, Mary C. MacPherson, . . . for and during her lifetime. Upon her death, I direct said trustee to transfer and pay over and I give, devise and bequeath the trust estate held in trust under the provisions of this subdivision (5), to the Voorhis School for Boys, a California corporation, having its principal place of business at San Dimas, California.”

Thereafter, in paragraph (7), the will stated: “I direct said trustee to transfer and pay over and I give, devise and bequeath all the rest, residue and remainder of said trust estate in the possession of said trustee, to the Voorhis School for Boys, a California corporation, having its principal place of business at San Dimas, California.”

The will was admitted into probate on May 2, 1932, and was then adopted in the decree of distribution signed on February 26, 1934. The decree provided in pertinent part:

“It Is Further Ordered, Adjudged and Decreed by the Court that [454]pursuant to the terms of the will of said decedent . ... all of the property of said estate, ... be distributed in the manner following, to-wit:

“All the rest, residue and remainder of the estate of said decedent, real, personal or mixed and wherever situate, whether described herein or not, to First Trust and Savings Bank of Pasadena, a California corporation, as trustee, but in trust, nevertheless, for and upon the uses and trusts and upon the terms and conditions and for the purposes recited and set forth in the will of said decedent. . . .”