Detre's Estate

Citations

• 273 Pa. 341
• 117 A. 54
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 575

Syllabus

<p>Trusts and trustees — Discretion as to investments — Successor in trust — Surcharge—Depreciation in value of bonds — State constitutional provision as to trusts — Ratification.</p> <p>1. Where a testator gives the residue of his estate in trust to his “executor hereinafter named, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns,” for his wife’s life, and then over, to invest the same “in such securities as to him may seem best, without responsibility as to the exercise of his discretion in so doing,” a successor to the executor in the trust, appointed under the Act of April 22, 1846, P. L. 483, succeeds to the discretionary powers of the former trustee, especially where the individual the testator appointed trustee is not referred to by name in the paragraph creating the trust.</p> <p>2. Where a trustee is clothed with discretionary powers as to investments and reinvestments, neither the state constitutional provision as to trust funds nor the rule as to legal investments applies.</p> <p>3. Where all parties, of full age, who are beneficiaries under a trust created by will, in which discretionary powers are given to the trustee as to investments, request the investment of the trust funds in certain securities, and ratify them after they are made, they cannot be heard, nearly eight years thereafter, during all of which time they received the income from such securities, to question the propriety of making such investments and charge responsibility upon the trustee for any shrinkage in value thereof.</p> <p>4. In determining whether a trustee should be surcharged with depreciation in value of securities in which he has invested the trust funds, the case must be judged as it appeared at the time of the investment.</p> <p>5. All that a court of equity requires from a trustee is common skill, common prudence and common caution, and he is not liable when he acts in good faith as others do with their own property.</p> <p>6. He will not be held personally liable for an h