Owens v. Naughton

Citations

• 23 Pa. Super. 639
• 1903 Pa. Super. LEXIS 135

Syllabus

<p>Trusts and trustees — Active trust — Discretion of trustee — SurvivorshipPartition.</p> <p>A trust is active when the interposition of the trustee is necessary to carry out its purpose, with respect to immediate or remote beneficiaries ; as the investment and care of property, a provision for a spendthrift or a person not sui juris, the maintenance of a separate estate for a wife, the preservation of estates for those in remainder, the exercise of discretionary powers respecting the subject of thb trust, etc.</p> <p>A testatrix gave her real estate to a trustee named “ to hold the same in trust for the following purposes: to keep the house as a home for my two nieces, so long as in his judgment and discretion they can live together therein in peace and concord. The taxes, water rent and repairs of said property to be provided for and paid by my said nieces. If in the judgment and discretion of my trustee it will be for the best interest of said nieces’ estate to sell and dispose of said property, then I authorize and empower him to sell the property at a private or public sale for such price or sum as he may deem adequate therefor, without any liability on the part of the purchaser to see to the application of the purchase money and free and discharged from any trust; and when said property shall be sold the proceeds thereof shall be divided equally between my said two nieces. If one shall be deceased at the time of such distribution then the whole sum sl,iall be paid over to the survivor.” Reid, that the trust created by the will was an active one and that the nieces had no such an estate in the property as entitled either one of them to demand partition of it.</p>