DocketNumber: 14692
Citation Numbers: 43 Conn. App. 365
Judges: Hennessy
Filed Date: 10/1/1996
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 9/8/2022
The plaintiff, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, acting in his official capacity pursuant to General Statutes § 3-125,
The trial court found the following facts. In 1878 and 1881, Beardsley transferred land to Bridgeport for the purpose of creating a park. Bridgeport has assumed much of the financial responsibility for maintaining the park since it was created. In its memorandum of decision, the trial court stated, “Recently, Bridgeport has struggled financially, nearly to the point of bankruptcy. In an effort to preserve the park and its zoo in accord-
The 1878 deed provides in relevant part: “I James W. Beardsley ... do give grant bargain sell and confirm unto the said City of Bridgeport [description of property] . . . [t]o have and to hold the above granted and bargained premises with the privileges and appurtenances thereof unto the said The City of Bridgeport and their successors as and for a Public Park to be designated and known as Beardsley Park with the unlimited and perpetual rights in said City to use and improve the same for that purpose. But it is hereby provided that if said City shall at any future time attempt to devote said premises or any part of the same to any other use than that of a Public Park designated as aforesaid or shall attempt to deliver or convey the same or any part thereof said City shall thereupon forfeit all right and title to said premises and the absolute title
The 1881 deed provides in relevant part: “I James Walker Beardsley ... do give, grant, bargain, sell and confirm unto the said City of Bridgeport [description of property] [t]o have and to hold the above granted and bargained premises, with the privileges and appurtenances thereof unto the said grantee forever to its own proper use and behoof. . . . The above deed is given only upon the following conditions: 1st, The said tracts therein conveyed are to be forever reserved, held, improved and used by said City of Bridgeport as apublic park to be called by the name of ‘Beardsley Park’ and for no other purpose. . . . Now therefore, if said conditions shall and each be fulfilled according to the terms hereof, then this deed shall be good and valid in law, but if the said City of Bridgeport shall fail to comply with any one of said conditions then this deed shall be void, and the title to the above described premises shall revert to said grantor and his heirs at law. And upon such breach of condition they shall be entitled to enter upon said premises and possess the same as their own estate.'
The trial court held that both deeds created a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent rather than a trust. It then concluded that because deviation is a trust
The first issue before us is whether the deeds created an equitable interest to which the equitable doctrine of deviation applies. Relying on Winchester v. Cox, 129 Conn. 106, 111-12, 26 A.2d 592 (1942), the trial court held that the Beardsley deeds did not create trusts. The trial court also distinguished the deeds in this case from the deeds in Winchester on the ground that the deeds in this case have a condition subsequent with a right of reentry. While a trust and a condition subsequent may be used in place of each other to achieve a similar goal, they are not exclusive of each other. 1 G. Bogert, Trusts and Trustees (2d Ed. Rev. 1984) § 35, p. 413-14. “A trustee may hold an interest on condition subsequent.” Id., 414; see Bristol Baptist Church v. Connecticut Baptist Convention, 98 Conn. 677, 682, 120 A. 497 (1923); 9 G. Bogert, supra, § 420, p. 89. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court improperly characterized the deeds in this case.
Winchester is, however, instructive in the determination of the proper characterization of these deeds. In Winchester v. Cox, supra, 129 Conn. 112, our Supreme Court held that “[t]o characterize the capacity in which a municipality holds land conveyed to it for carrying out one of its proper purposes as that of a trustee, while
Having described the interest that a charitable use creates, we must now determine whether equitable jurisdiction attaches to it. “In . . . recent times . . . the subject of charities has undergone a great deal of investigation, both in England and in the United States, and it has become definitely settled that trusts for charitable uses, or public charities, as known at the present time, are of ancient origin and were long recognized as a part of the common law, and that equitable jurisdiction attached to such trusts prior to the enactment of the Statute of Charitable Uses.
Next, we determine whether the equitable doctrine of deviation applies to this case in light of the trial court’s findings. “The court possesses . . . [an] important power, namely, that of changing, or permitting the trustee to change, the methods of administration set forth in the trust instrument, when this is deemed necessary or highly desirable in order to enable the trustee to perform the trust.” 8 G. Bogert, Trusts and Trustees (2d Ed. Rev. Repl. 1991) § 396, p. 312. “Through exercise of its deviation power the court alters or amends administrative provisions in the trust instrument but does not alter the purpose of the charitable trust or change its dispositive provisions.” Id., § 396, p. 314. Deviation has been applied to preserve the “dominant purpose by modifying what is described as [a] secondary purpose, often the method or means for carrying out the dominant purpose.” Id., § 396, p. 330. In Bristol Baptist Church v. Connecticut Baptist Convention, supra, 98 Conn. 688, our Supreme Court noted the importance of recognizing the dominant purpose
In this case, the primary intent of the Beardsley deeds was to create a park. A review of the deeds indicates that one of the ways that Beardsley sought to ensure that the property remained a park was to prohibit Bridgeport from transferring the property. In view of the trial court’s factual finding that Bridgeport has serious financial problems that risk the preservation of the parks, a holding that preserves the deeds’ secondary purpose of prohibiting Bridgeport’s ability to transfer the property would destroy Beardsley’s intent of maintaining the property as a park. This court, therefore, concludes that the trial court, in the exercise of its equitable powers, should have applied the doctrine of deviation in order to preserve Beardsley’s primary intent of maintaining the property as a park. Accordingly, we conclude that the Beardsley deeds created an interest to which the doctrine of deviation should be applied and that the doctrine of deviation should be applied to the Beardsley deeds in accordance with the proposal of the parties.
The final issue before this court is whether the trial court improperly failed to apply the doctrine of deviation to the Rogers fund. The express purpose of the Rogers fund is “to augment, develop or increase the Zoo in the Parks of the City of Bridgeport.” The provision of the will creating the fund then identified “the Zoo” as the “Zoo at Beardsley Park.” The fund’s only purpose would be thwarted by the transfer of the zoo without the fund because the life of the Rogers fund depends on its use as a resource for the zoo in Beardsley Park. In view of this court’s holding with respect to the Beardsley deeds, we also conclude, consistent with the proposal of the parties, that the doctrine of deviation should
The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded with direction to render judgment in favor of the named plaintiff on all counts of the complaint.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
General Statutes § 3-125 provides in relevant part, that, the attorney general “shall represent the public interest in the protection of any gifts, legacies or devises intended for public or charitable purposes.” Blumenthal also asserts that in addition to his statutory authority he is acting pursuant to his common law authority to oversee gifts given for public; or charitable purposes.
The parties submitted the proposal as a stipulated judgment. The stipulation is set forth in the record.
The other conditions provide the following: “2nd, That upon the tracts named above, and that also conveyed to said City by said Beardsley by deed recorded in Bridgeport Land Records Vol 54 page 429 [1878 deed] the said City of Bridgeport shall expend Three Thousand Dollars ($3000) per annum during the next ten (10) years in laying out and improving the same as a public park, including a proper mapped layout for the improvement of said lands as a whole. 3rd, That in case at any time during said ten years, or during the life time of said grantor herein, he shall release to said City of Bridgeport his life use in the whole or any part of said tracts, the said City shall annually appropriate of Three Thousand Dollars, or of any larger sum which may be by said City appropriated to said Park, as the land so released bears to the whole tract herein conveyed in area.”
See Hamden v. Rice, 24 Conn. 350, 355 (1856) (discussing history of charitable uses and trusts and attributing their origin to Statute of Elizabeth).