Frederick M. Crane's Estate

Citations

• 174 Pa. 613
• 34 A. 348
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 934

Syllabus

<p>Will — Trust and trustees — Lunatic's estate.</p> <p>Testator by his will left his estate to his executor in trust to provide for the maintenance of his widow out of the income and the principal, if necessary, for her life, with remainder to a nephew. At the date of the will testator s wife was a lunatic, and she has continued permanently insane. Certain property belonging to the widow, which had been in the possession of the testator passed into the hands of the trustee upon the testator’s death. The income derived from the trust estate was not sufficient to support the widow in the hospital in which she had been placed during her husband’s lifetime. The trustee therefore used some of the income derived from the widow’s estate for her support. By this arrangement the trustee'was enabled to keep the whole trust estate invested, and obviated the necessity of an immediate and probably a disadvantageous sale of a part of it. A brother-in-law of the widow to whom her property was subsequently transferred, and who afterwards became her committee, consented to the use of the income, but claimed that the money should be returned to her estate. Held, (1) that the trustee could not use the widow’s separate estate, or the income thereof without her consent, and that he was personally liable for such of it as he had used for her support ; (2) that the consent of the widow’s brother-in-law to the use of her income had no binding effect on the widow or her representative; (3) that as between the trustee and the trust estate, the money taken from the widow’s separate estate was an advancement for a proper purpose, and the trustee being personally liable therefor was entitled to repayment out of the principal of the trust estate.</p>