## Facts

- William C. Skinner executed a will in 1920 and died in 1922, leaving a residuary estate.
- Article Fourteenth of the will devised one-third of the residue to Phoenix State Bank and Trust Company (later succeeded by Connecticut Bank and Trust Company) as trustee, “in trust, to hold the same for the use and benefit of my children, my grandchildren and my great grandchildren.”
- The trust directed the trustee to:
  - pay the income in equal shares to Skinner’s children for their lives;
  - after the death of the last surviving child, pay the income to Skinner’s grandchildren (as a group) for their lives; and
  - after the death of the last surviving grandchild, distribute the principal in equal shares to Skinner’s great-grandchildren (as a group).
- At Skinner’s death, he was survived by three children and five grandchildren, and he had no great-grandchildren.
- The successor trustee brought an action in the Superior Court seeking a decree advising it of its rights, powers, and authority in administering the trust, including whether the remainder to great-grandchildren was valid.
- The parties stipulated to the relevant facts, and the Superior Court reserved questions of law to the Connecticut Supreme Court for advice.

## Issues

1. Whether the trust’s remainder to the testator’s great-grandchildren as a class—following successive life income interests to the testator’s children and then to the testator’s grandchildren—was void under the common-law Rule Against Perpetuities.

## Decision

- The Connecticut Supreme Court advised that the class remainder to the testator’s great-grandchildren violated the Rule Against Perpetuities and was void.
- Because the great-grandchildren’s class gift was invalid, the trustee could not distribute the principal under that limitation when the prior life interests ended.
- The court advised that, with the remainder limitation struck, the property that would have passed to great-grandchildren would instead pass as on intestacy (i.e., to the testator’s heirs determined under the governing default rules), subject to the valid preceding life interests.

## Legal Principles

- Under the common-law Rule Against Perpetuities, a future interest is invalid unless it must vest, if at all, no later than 21 years after the death of a life in being at the creation of the interest.
- The Rule is applied based on possibilities at the time the interest is created, not on what is likely to happen; for analysis, persons are treated as capable of having children regardless of age.
- Where an instrument creates a gift to a class, the class gift is void if it is possible that the interest of any potential class member might vest outside the perpetuities period.
- A remainder to “great-grandchildren” that is not to take effect until the death of the last surviving grandchild can vest too remotely when (1) the grandchildren class can increase after the testator’s death and (2) vesting is postponed until the end of the grandchildren life interests.
- When a testamentary limitation is void for remoteness, the invalid limitation is struck and the affected property passes under the applicable default rules (often intestate succession), unless another valid disposition controls.

## Conclusion

In *Connecticut Bank and Trust Company v. Brody*, the Connecticut Supreme Court advised that a testamentary trust paying income to the testator’s children for life, then to grandchildren for life, with principal to great-grandchildren as a class after the last grandchild’s death, created a remainder that might vest beyond lives in being plus twenty-one years; the great-grandchildren class gift was therefore void, and the property subject to that invalid remainder would pass under default succession rules subject to the valid prior life interests.


Connecticut Bank and Trust Company v. Brody, 392 A.2d 445 (1978)