Goad v. Montgomery

Citations

• 119 Cal. 552
• 51 P. 681
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 669

Syllabus

<p>Estates of Deceased Persons—Trust under Wild—Degree of Distribution to Trustees—Conclusiveness of Decree upon Construction of Will—Power of Trustees.—A decree of distribution to trustees under the will of a deceased person, unappealed from, is final and conclusive as to the terms of the trust defined therein, and as to the powers and duties of the trustees in regard to the trust property distributed to them, which are to be measured by the terms of the decree, and not by the terms of the will, which is superseded by the decree, and cannot be resorted to as evidence to impeach the decree, or to establish powers of the trustees not conferred by the decree; and where such decree distributed certain real estate and certain mortgage securities to the trustees in lieu of a large money legacy required by the will to be managed by the trustees for the benefit of the minor children of the testator, and the decree declared that the property so distributed to them was “in trust that the said trustees shall manage the said property and pay over and deliver one-half of said property so distributed to them,” to each of the children upon their respectively attaining the age of majority, the trustees, though originally emnowered by the will as executors to-sell and convey and dispose of all the property owned by the testator without any order of court, have no power to sell or dispose of any of the property distributed to them by the decree in trust, except a» directed and confirmed by order of a court of competent jurisdiction.</p> <p>Id.—Power of Court in Distribution of Estate—Construction of Will in Decree.—A court having jurisdiction to distribute the estate of a deceased person has power to determine what distribution shall be-made under its decree to trustees named in the will, and to construe the will of the testator, and determine his intention in creating a. trust thereunder, and to distribute the estate to the trustees in accordance with its own views of his intention