Crawford v. Dexter — 224 N.Y. 586

Majority

p. 586

Everett L. Crawford et al., as Trustees under the Will of Henry Dexter, Deceased, Respondents, v. Clarissa T. Dexter et al., Defendants, and Midnight Mission et al., Appellants.

Headnote

Crawford v. Dexter, 178 App. Div. 764 , affirmed.

(Argued June 7, 1918;

decided July 12, 1918.)

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered November 23, 1917, modifying and affirming as modified a judgment entered upon the report of a referee in an action to settle the accounts of trustees under the will of Henry Dexter, deceased, and to obtain a construction of said will. Testator directed his trustees to

p. 587

apply the “ rest, residue and remainder of my property and estate or so much thereof as may be necessary in their best judgment and discretion, but not less than $5,000 per annum, to the care, support, maintenance, benefit and use of my daughter Clarissa Treadwell Dexter, for and during her natural life.” The question on appeal had to do with the disposition to be made of the accumulated income of the estate, which on April 27, 1915, amounted to $209,845.96. Did the testator’s insane daughter, Clarissa Treadwell Dexter, have a vested interest in this accumulated income, or was her interest in the income limited to only so much as the executors and trustees should apply for her benefit, in no event less than $5,000 per year? The Appellate Division held that the daughter is entitled to the entire net income and that any surplus not expended for her maintenance should be held by the trustees for her benefit.

Grenville T. Emmet and Allen S. Locke for Midnight Mission et al., appellants.

Bronson Winthrop and George Roberts for S. Clinton Sherwood, appellant.

Herbert S. Schoonmaker and William H. Sage for Young Men’s Christian Association, appellant.

William H. Harris and Edwin S. Lewis for American Bible Society et al., appellants.

Edwin C. Mulligan for Salvation Army, appellant.

Francis Smyth for New York Association for Improving Condition of Poor, appellant.

William C. Beecher for New York Society for Suppression of Vice, appellant.

Walter E. Hope for plaintiffs, respondents.

William Mason Smith for Mary G. Dexter et al., respondents.

Wallace MacFarlane and Robert Grier Monroe for Clarissa T. Dexter, respondent.

Judgment affirmed, with costs; no opinion.

Concur: Chase, Collin, Cuddeback, Hogan, Cardozo and McLaughlin, JJ. Not voting: Hiscock, Ch. J.