Merritt v. Nussbaum

Citations

• 155 Cal. 727

Syllabus

<p>Wills—Charitable Uses in Perpetuity Must Be Exclusively Such. .—A will in order to create a charitable trust in perpetuity must be confined in .its application to charitable uses only.</p> <p>Id.—Construction op Constitution.—Section 9 of article XX of the constitution providing that “No perpetuities shall be allowed except for eleemosynary purposes,” is to be construed as limiting such perpetuities to “charitable” purposes, the word “eleemosynary” used therein being synonymous with “charitable.”</p> <p>Id.—Construction op Code.—Sections 847 and 857 of the Civil Code apply only to private trusts, and not to trusts for charitable uses. A trust to convey real estate and convert into money to be used for charitable purposes, is not void under those sections, nor is it within the rule laid down in the decisions o£ this court as to the invalidity of private trusts to convey; nor does section 715 of the Civil Code limiting restraints upon alienation, restrict charitable perpetuities.</p> <p>Id.—Rule at Common Law.—-At common law trusts to be valid as perpetuities must be limited to charitable purposes,' and the common-law rule upon that subject has never been changed in this state.</p> <p>Id.—Void Trust in Perpetuity—Other than Charitable Purposes—. Discretion of Executors or Official Board.—A will which provides for the application of the testator’s funds for such charities, institutions of learning, and science, and for distinguished scholarship and scientific discovery, and inventions, as shall be directed by his executors within three years, or in ease of their failure to do so, as shall be directed by an official board of trustees provided for in the will, is void, both as authorizing other than charitable purposes, and in leaving the designation of purposes wholly to the discretion of the executors or official board, thus rendering the trust void for uncertainty.</p> <p>Id.—Institutions of Learning and Science—Private Enterprises.— Though institutions of learning