In re the Estate of Watson
In the Matter of the Estate of Arthur W. Watson
Opinion of the Court
Text extracted by OCR from a scanned original; check the original for exact wording.
Howell, S.
I cannot find in this will an authority to hold these stocks as a permanent investment. I do feel that the trustees should have such time as good sound judgment may require to protect the estate against the sale of sound securities in a market that is of common knowledge depressed.
There is no advantage to an estate to arbitrarily, even under statute, deplete the estate.
The trustees are held to a diligent protection of the estate, and such exercise of judgment in the present condition of the market should not be marked arbitrarily by months.
I like the rule laid down in Matter of Weston ( 91 N. Y. 502 ), where the court says: “ Where no modifying facts are shown to shorten or lengthen the reasonable time, the period of eighteen months may serve as a just standard,” although it was also held that “ while such period furnishes a convenient guide where no special circumstances exist, it must, after all not be taken as a fixed or arbitrary standard. The test must remain, the diligence and prudence of prudent and intelligent men in the management of their own affairs.”
How later courts describe this case
No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.
Cited by 3 cases
View all citing references →Relies on it most ⓘ
Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.