Speer v. Colbert
Headline: Court upholds charitable bequests in a will, rejects a misnomer challenge to Georgetown’s name, validates research and scholarship gifts, and voids certain personally supervised items, leaving most gifts for the college and asylums intact.
Holding: The Court affirmed the lower court: the testator meant the incorporated Georgetown College despite the "Georgetown University" name, most charitable bequests are valid, but certain personally supervised gifts are void.
- Allows Georgetown College to receive and use endowment and scholarship funds.
- Validates equal division of $5,000 between two orphan asylums.
- Declares personally supervised chime gift void; its funds do not pass as directed.
Summary
Background
An individual left a will giving money to what he called "Georgetown University," two orphan asylums, scholarships, a chime of bells under trustee supervision, and other funds. Relatives challenged those gifts. They argued the university gift was void because it was to a sectarian institution made less than one month before the donor’s death, and they argued the corporation’s true name was different so it could not take the gift.
Reasoning
The Court agreed with the lower courts that there was no separate incorporated "Georgetown University" apart from the chartered Georgetown College, and that the popular name did not defeat the bequest. The Court held the 1844 charter gave the college power to accept bequests and to support research as part of its educational mission. It also explained that the death or resignation of named trustees does not destroy a trust because a successor can be appointed. The Court upheld the bequests to the orphan asylums and the medical scholarship, agreed the personally supervised chime-of-bells gift was void, and noted one fund already declared void would join the residuary estate.
Real world impact
Most charitable gifts in the will survive. The incorporated Georgetown College can receive and use the designated endowment and scholarship. The orphan asylums may receive their shares. One invalid fund becomes part of the residuary estate and costs are to be paid from that residue.
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