Wilmington Trust Co. v. Jacobs

Citations

• 9 Del. Ch. 77
• 77 A. 78
• 1910 Del. Ch. LEXIS 19

Syllabus

<p>Testator gave Iris estate to his executor as trustee for his wife and child, and directed that the income be paid to his wife, for herself anil child, until she should remarry, and then the income was to be used for the child alone. Upon the remarriage of the wife, her interest in the estate ceased. If the wife should die before the daughter, the duty to expend the income for the child devolved on the trustee, who was limited to the expenditure of the income until the daughter should attain thirty years of age, whether married or not. If at thirty years of age she was unmarried, the whole principal should be paid to her; but, if married to a husband whose moral character and business ability should be approved by the trustee, he should pay over to her such part of the principal as his judgment should approve, and in any event, after her marriage and attaining thirty years of age, the trustee was to pay to her part of the principal to meet necessities for which the income was inadequate. The executor appointed by the will was mentioned by name only twice in the will. Held, that the discertionary powers vested in the trustee survived to his successors, and therefore, on the remarriage of testator’s widow, the resignation of the original executor, and the appointment of a successor as trustee, the child, on arriving at tíie age of twenty-one years, and not having attained thirty years of age, would not be entitled to receive the principal of the estate.</p> <p>Discretionary powers annexed to the office of trustee and intended to form an integral part of it, will survive to a trustee succeeding the original trustee; but it is otherwise where the powers are arbitrary and independent of the trust, and not an integral part of it, for the discretion would then be personal.</p>