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154 Mass. 596

In re Thurston

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided November 18, 1891

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1891-11-18

Petition, filed in the Superior Court, for the termination of a trust. The case was heard by Barher, J., and was as follows.

Relies on Sewall v. Roberts · Keyes v. Carleton · Viney v. Abbott

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1891-11-18

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently June 1950

2 federal appellate · 11 state decisions

501891190019101920193019401950decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Lathrop, J.

¶1The general rule in this Commonwealth undoubtedly is that a voluntary settlement, which is completely executed, with no power of revocation reserved, cannot be revoked or set aside, except upon proof of mental incapacity, mistake, fraud, or undue influence. Hildreth v. Eliot, 8 Pick. 293. Viney v. Abbott, 109 Mass. 300. Sewall v. Roberts, 115 Mass. 262.

¶2Where, however, “the whole objects and purposes of the trust have been accomplished, the interests created under it have all vested, the parties request it, and the trustee consents,” a court of equity may decree the determination of the trust. Hoar, J., in Bowditch v. Andrew, 8 Allen, 339. See also Smith v. Harrington, 4 Allen, 566; Inches v. Hill, 106 Mass. 575; Stone, petitioner, 138 Mass. 476; Gannon v. Ruffin, 151 Mass. 204.

¶3The case at bar falls within the rule, and not within the exception. The children of the petitioner have a beneficial interest in the trust fund, and they have not assented to the termination of the trust.

¶4The petitioner contends that, where no motive exists for not inserting a power of revocation, the absence of such power is prima facie evidence of a mistake. But if she had retained such a power it would have defeated the object of the settlement, which was, as she alleges, to place the property beyond the *598interference or control of her then husband. Keyes v. Carleton, 141 Mass. 45.

¶5The decree of the justice of the Superior Court dismissing the bill must be Affirmed.

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