## Facts

- Eleanor B. Wasserman wrote *Linda*, a memoir about her daughter’s death, her grief, spiritual experiences, and conversion from Judaism to Christianity, intended to help other bereaved parents.
- Wasserman’s 1971 will made specific bequests and left the residue to three trustees.
- The will directed trustees to preserve and protect the manuscript, illustrations, and copyrights and, if practicable, to have the book widely published in expanded and revised form, in as many editions as necessary, and to use the material in any feasible form or method.
- The will expressed that the entire trust corpus and accumulated income should be used to carry out the book-related purpose; if she died before publishing a second edition, executors could employ Christian writers to complete it.
- Wasserman died in 1978; because her husband had predeceased her, most of the estate would fund the testamentary trust’s publication and dissemination objectives.
- A declaratory judgment action sought instructions on the trust’s validity; a master, relying on expert testimony that the book lacked literary merit and was not marketable, concluded the trust was not charitable and failed as a private trust for want of ascertainable beneficiaries.
- The circuit court adopted the master’s conclusions and declared the trust invalid; the trustee appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a testamentary trust to preserve, revise, publish, and disseminate a specific book intended to provide spiritual and emotional support to an indefinite class of persons constitutes a valid charitable trust under Maryland law.
2. If not charitable, whether the disposition could be saved by cy pres under Md. Est. & Trusts Code § 14-302.

## Decision

- The Maryland Court of Special Appeals reversed the circuit court’s decree and held the trust was a valid charitable trust.
- The court held that the trust’s object was a public benefit—spiritual and emotional assistance to an indefinite class (bereaved parents and others)—not private enrichment.
- The court rejected treating literary merit or marketability as determinative of charitable status.
- Because the trust was valid as written, the court did not reach the cy pres issue.

## Legal Principles

- A charitable trust is valid when its purpose benefits an indefinite segment of the public in a manner recognized as charitable, including advancement of religion, education, or other community benefits.
- Charitable purposes are construed broadly; the focus is the public-benefit objective of the disposition, not commercial success or aesthetic quality.
- Indefinite and fluctuating beneficiaries are consistent with charitable trusts; the lack of ascertainable beneficiaries is not a defect when the trust is properly classified as charitable.
- Expert opinions on a work’s marketability or literary merit do not control whether a trust to disseminate that work serves a charitable purpose.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a testamentary trust directing trustees to use most of the estate to preserve, revise, publish, and widely disseminate a religious and grief-related memoir, ruling that the intended public spiritual and emotional benefit to an indefinite class qualifies the disposition as a valid charitable trust.


Rosser v. Prem, 449 A.2d 461 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1982)