Lewis's Estate

Citations

• 269 Pa. 379
• 112 A. 454
• 13 A.L.R. 1053
• 1921 Pa. LEXIS 570

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Power of appointment — Appointment to lineals — Intention of donor — Alternative remainders supported by an active trust —Trusts and trustees — Discretion within selected class.</p> <p>1. The applicability of the rules of law, relating to the exercise of a power of appointment, is not to be measured solely by the particular class in which its power may be conveniently placed, or wherein it may operate, but from a consideration of the intent and purpose for which the power was created, and whether its exercise expressly or impliedly, violates the conditions laid down by the donor.</p> <p>2. The donee of a power has the right to pass to succeeding appointees the power to further appoint.</p> <p>3. Where a testator gives a life estate in certain income to his daughter with a power to appoint “to such person or persons, being my lineal descendente,” as she may appoint by will “in such shares and amounts as she may choose,” the power is lawfully exercised by the daughter by the creation, through trustees, of a life estate for her son in the same income, and by giving him a like power to appoint by his will, or, in default thereof, to his children.</p> <p>4. Such testamentary power is not a special expression of trust and confidence, which is personal to the donee.</p> <p>5. In such case the fact that a trust was imposed on the corpus during the lifetime of the son, did not defeat the appointment, though the power was restricted within a class.</p>