Question

IRAC summary

Roy and Icie Johnson established two revocable inter vivos trusts in 1966. The trusts provided that upon Roy’s and Icie’s deaths, income from the trusts was to be paid in equal shares to their two sons, James and Robert, for life. Upon the death of the survivor of the sons, the trust was to be “divided equally between all of my grandchildren, per stirpes.” James had two daughters, Barbara and Elizabeth. Robert had four children, David, Rosalyn, Catherine, and Elizabeth. James and Robert disclaimed their interest in the trust in 1979, and a dispute arose about how the trust should be distributed to the grandchildren. The trustee filed an action seeking instructions on how the trusts should be distributed. What should the court hold?

Answer 1

Answer:

Trust is the agreemnt between two parties in order to perform the duties and conditions as per the agreement.The issue here is whether the trust should be distributed to the grandchildren as individuals or as representives of their fathers.The court stated that the purpose of a court is to interpret a will or trust to ascertain the intention of a settler.The court should interpret the wording of document as a whole and should give each word meaning in the document.Here the trust stated that income from trust should be divided among their two sons.The agreement already stated that the trust shares should be equally divided among grandchildren,per stripes.ie as representatives of their fathers.So the shares should be equally divided between both their grandhchildren.From that shares of james ,two daughters get their equal shares and the remaining share of Robert should be equally divided among their four children.