## Facts

- Clara Harrison executed a will directing that one-half of her residuary estate be placed in a discretionary testamentary trust.
- The trust beneficiaries were her son, Jean Harrison, Jean’s wife, and Jean’s issue.
- When Clara died, Jean and his wife already had three children.
- After Clara’s death, Jean and his wife had four additional children.
- The will gave the trustees absolute discretion to apply trust income and principal for the support or education of any beneficiary.
- The will provided that the trust would continue as long as any beneficiary born within 20 years after Clara’s death remained alive.
- Thomas, a party in interest, petitioned the probate court to construe the will and determine whether the trust violated the rule against perpetuities.

## Issues

1. Whether Clara Harrison’s testamentary trust for Jean Harrison, his wife, and their issue violated the rule against perpetuities because the trust could continue for the life of any beneficiary born within 20 years after the testatrix’s death.
2. Whether the discretionary power to distribute income and principal to an open class (“issue”) created any future interest that might vest outside the perpetuities period.

## Decision

- The probate court concluded that the trust provisions did not violate the rule against perpetuities.
- The court upheld the trust as valid under the will’s duration and beneficiary limits.

## Legal Principles

- Under the common-law rule against perpetuities, a future interest is void if, at the time the interest is created, there is any possibility it may vest later than 21 years after the death of a relevant life in being.
- A class gift that might otherwise remain open can be kept within the perpetuities period by a drafting limit that restricts membership to persons born within a specified time after the testator’s death.
- The rule against perpetuities is concerned with remote vesting of future interests; it is not violated merely because a trust is administered over a long period if the interests are structured to vest within the permitted time.
- In construing a will, a court will prefer a reasonable interpretation that sustains the testamentary plan and avoids a perpetuities violation when the language supports that construction.

## Conclusion

Thomas v. Harrison upheld Clara Harrison’s discretionary testamentary trust for her son, his wife, and their issue, reasoning that the will’s express restriction tying trust duration to the lives of beneficiaries born within 20 years after Clara’s death prevented any prohibited possibility of vesting beyond the perpetuities period.


Thomas v. Harrison, 24 Ohio. Op. 2d 148, 191 N.E.2d 862 (1962)