St. Stephen's Episcopal Church v. Morris' Administrator

Citations

• 115 Va. 225
• 78 S.E. 622
• 1913 Va. LEXIS 26

Syllabus

<p>1. Wills&emdash;Devise to Church&emdash;Legal Beneficiary&emdash;Enforcement in. Equity.&emdash;While a church cannot take real estate by devise, under the statute law of this State, if property be devised to a church for a specific, definite, legal purpose, such as the erection of a memorial to a deceased relative, the church is not the beneficiary but a bare trustee, holding the property for the object named, and the devise is valid, and if for any reason the church cannot administer the trust through the medium of its agencies, a court of equity will administer it, on the principle that a court of equity will never permit a trust to fail for want, of a trustee.</p> <p>2. Wills&emdash;Devise to Church and Others&emdash;Personality for Benefit of Church&emdash;Case in Judgment.&emdash;When an estate, consisting of real and personal property, but chiefly personal estate, is devised and bequeathed to a church with directions to apply one half of the estate to the erection of a designated memorial, and $600 of the residue to the purchase and erection of certain specified inasmuch as a church cannot take real estate by devise under the laws of this State, a court of equity, in furtherance of the purposes of the testator, will discharge the interest of the church under the will, from that portion of the estate which it can take without objection, and devote the real estate or its to building the memorial and buying the tombstones, which is not an illegel intent and violates no law. It is not the policy of the law to seek grounds for avoiding devises and bequests, but rather to deal with both so as to uphold and them if it can be done consistently with the rules of the law.</p>