Trust Of Gurney

152 A.D.3d 1122 (2017)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P assumed her duties as successor trustee of a revocable living trust established by Gurney (decedent) when she became unable to manage her affairs. The trust agreement directed that, upon decedent's death, the trust assets be applied toward her debts and gifts to various individuals and organizations. The trustee would then distribute percentages of the residuary trust corpus to three institutions including, 20% to St. Mary's Roman Catholic School. Decedent died in 2015, after which P found herself unable to make the distribution to the school given that it had been closed in 2011 and its grounds sold to an unrelated entity. P sought permission to distribute the school's share equally between the other two institutions named in the residuary clause. St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, New York and Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York (Ds)-the parish and diocese, respectively, under whose auspices the school operated-answered and argued that the school's share should be distributed to the parish's faith formation ministry and a diocesan scholarship fund pursuant to the cy pres doctrine. The court declined to apply the cy pres doctrine and granted P's motion. Ds appealed.