law of advancements

Ferdinand Straus died on July 1, 1934, leaving a last will and testament dated May 5, 1934, which contained a provision for a trust for his wife for her life of one-third of the decedent’s property both real and personal. On June 28, 1934, three days before his death, he executed trust agreements by which, in form at least, he transferred to trustees all his real and personal property. The beneficiary named in the trust agreement brought this action to compel the trustees to carry out its terms. The widow challenged the validity of the transfer to the trustees. The trial court found that the trust agreements were made, executed and delivered by said Ferdinand Straus for the purpose of evading and circumventing the laws of the State of New York, and particularly sections 18 and 83 of the Decedent Estate Law. The trial court also found that the settlor reserved the enjoyment of the entire income as long as he should live, and a right to revoke the trust at his will, and in general the powers granted to the trustees were in terms made subject to the settlor’s control during his life.

In March 1944 petitioner Fisher, the janitor at the library of the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Washington, D.C., killed librarian Catherine Cooper Reardon inside the library building between eight and nine o'clock on the morning of March 1. Reardon had complained a few days earlier to the verger about Fisher's care of the premises, and the verger had informed Fisher of the complaint. Fisher and Reardon were alone in the library at the time of the homicide. Fisher testified that Reardon spoke insulting words about his work, after which he slapped her impulsively. He ran up a flight of steps toward an exit but turned back, seized a stick of firewood, struck her, and when the stick broke choked her to silence. He then dragged her to a lavatory and left the body to clean up some spots of blood on the floor outside. While Fisher was doing this cleaning up, the victim started hollering again. Fisher then took out his knife and stuck her in the throat. After that he dragged her body down into an adjoining pump pit, where it was found the next morning. Fisher's accounts of the events varied. His original confession made no reference to insulting words from Reardon. His written confession mentioned them, and his trial testimony amplified their effect on him. In the written confession he admitted his main reason for assaulting her was that she had reported him for not cleaning the floor. The Deputy Coroner testified that the knife wound was not deep and only went through the skin. Defense psychiatrists testified that Fisher was a psychopathic personality of a predominantly aggressive type, mentally somewhat below average, with minor stigmata of mental subnormalcy, and that he was unable by reason of a deranged mental condition to resist the impulse to kill. The prosecution introduced competent evidence that Fisher was capable of understanding the nature and quality of his acts. All evidence offered by the defense was received by the trial court. Fisher was tried in the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia on an indictment charging killing by choking and strangling with deliberate and premeditated malice. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the first count, and the court imposed a sentence of death. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed the judgment and sentence.

Charles B. Henry, a resident of Winchester, Virginia, died testate on April 23, 1949. His will dated April 21, 1949, was admitted to probate and the Shenandoah Valley National Bank of Winchester qualified as the designated executor and trustee. Subject to two inconsequential provisions, Henry's entire estate valued at $86,000 was left in trust to be known as the Charles B. Henry and Fannie Belle Henry Fund. The trustee was directed to invest and reinvest the estate, collect the income, and on the last school day before Easter and before Christmas each year divide the net income into equal parts and pay one part to each child then enrolled in the first, second, and third grades of the John Kerr School in Winchester, with the payments to be used by each child in the furtherance of his or her education. The John Kerr School is a public primary school with an enrollment of approximately 458 pupils. If the school were discontinued, payments would be made instead to children in the same grades of any successor school or schools as determined by the Winchester School Board. The trustee was granted broad power and discretion to retain, sell, invest, and reinvest estate assets as it deemed in the best interest of the trust. Henry left no children or near relatives. His heirs and distributees upon intestacy were first cousins and more remote kin. One next of kin filed suit against the executor and trustee challenging the trust provisions. The bill alleged that the trust did not constitute a charitable trust and was invalid because it violated the rule against perpetuities. Other heirs joined the suit and sought to have the trust declared void with the estate distributed among the next of kin. The cause was heard on the bill and a demurrer filed by the executor and trustee. The demurrer was overruled and decrees were entered adjudicating the principles of the cause. From those decrees this appeal was awarded.