## Facts

- Cornelia G. Haney executed a will directing that 32% of her residuary estate be placed with a bank “in trust” for the use and benefit of St. Mary’s Hospital to create a “Haney Memorial.”
- The will authorized a three-member committee to determine, in its sole discretion, the memorial’s “exact nature and form” and to direct the trustee to expend or transfer trust assets to the hospital on terms the committee set.
- After Haney’s death in 1951, the committee decided in 1954 to use the trust funds to build a chapel on the hospital’s campus.
- The chapel was completed and dedicated in 1956 as the “Chapel of Mary, Queen,” marked as a memorial to Haney.
- In 2003, St. Mary’s decided to expand its medical facilities and concluded the chapel’s site was needed, so it planned to demolish the chapel.
- Vincent McCarthy, a distant relative of Haney and grandson of one committee member, sued to stop demolition, asserting the bequest created a charitable trust and that the chapel itself was held in trust and could not be razed.
- The trial court entered declaratory relief and a permanent injunction barring demolition.

## Issues

1. Whether the will and subsequent construction of the chapel created a continuing charitable trust in the chapel itself, restricting St. Mary’s ability to demolish it.
2. Whether, under the will’s terms and trust principles, St. Mary’s could lawfully demolish the chapel to facilitate hospital expansion.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of Indiana reversed the declaratory judgment and permanent injunction.
- The court held the will created a trust to fund creation of a memorial for the hospital’s benefit, not a separate ongoing trust impressed on the chapel as perpetual trust property.
- Once the trust funds were used to construct the memorial, the trust purpose was fulfilled; no continuing charitable trust restriction barred St. Mary’s from demolishing the chapel.
- The court found no express will provision limiting future modification or demolition of the memorial after it was created.

## Legal Principles

- A will creating a trust to fund a charitable objective is construed by the testator’s intent as shown by the instrument’s text, including any discretion granted to designated decisionmakers.
- A trust to “create” a memorial for an institutional beneficiary may terminate upon completion of the specified purpose when the instrument does not impose ongoing restrictions on the resulting property.
- Courts will not infer perpetual preservation obligations absent clear language restricting alteration or disposal of the memorial structure.
- Enforcement of charitable trust obligations is generally reserved to public authorities; private enforcement typically requires a special interest beyond generalized concern.

## Conclusion

The appellate court concluded that Haney’s bequest established a trust to finance creation of a memorial benefiting St. Mary’s, and that purpose was completed when the chapel was built; because the will did not impose an ongoing restriction on the chapel’s future use, St. Mary’s was not legally barred from demolishing it for expansion.


St. Mary’s Med. Ctr., Inc. v. McCarthy, 829 N.E.2d 1068 (Ind. Ct. App. 2005)