Steinmetz's Estate

Citations

• 168 Pa. 171
• 31 A. 1070
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 772

Syllabus

<p>Will — Trusts and trustees — Separate use trust.</p> <p>Where the purpose to create a separate use trust is clear, no particular form of words is necessary.</p> <p>Testator by -his will directed that during the life of his wife his real estate should remain undivided and unapportioned, and that one third of the net income should be paid to her and the remainder divided equally among his children, naming them. He further directed as follows: ‘ ‘ This arrangement I desire to continue during the life of my wife .... At her decease it is my will that my children do as they think best. It is, however, my will (should my children agree to a division of my estate after the death of my wife) that the separate portions of my daughters .... shall be separately secured to them and to their use beyond the dictation of the husband of either of them.” The daughters were all married at the date of the will. Held, that the daughters took a valid separate use trust which went into effect upon the death of the widow.</p> <p>The intent of the testator was to secure the shares of his daughters to their separate use, and the contingency of the widow’s death, and the partition by the children of the common estate did not go to the creation of the separate use but to the time and occasion for putting it into formal execution.</p>