days' personal notice to the attorney-general, and four weeks' notice by publication once a week for four successive weeks in two newspapers of general circulation published in the county in which the treasurer of such association or of such committee shall reside, or, if such treasurer shall reside out of the state in the county in which at least ten per centum of the contributors to such fund shall have resided at the time of its receipt, otherwise in such manner as the court shall prescribe, to the contributors as a class, to ten specified members of such class, and to the trustees of such association, or to the surviving members of such committee, make an order directing that such balance be transferred for administration to such domestic corporation as in the judgment of the court will most effectually accomplish the general purpose for which said fund shall have been collected, without regard to and free from any express or implied limitation, restriction or direction upon which the subscription shall have been made; and on the transfer of said fund to the corporation designated in such order, said voluntary association and its officers and trustees, or said committee and its treasurer and other officers, shall be fully exonerated and discharged from all liability to account therefor. (Added by chapter 220 of the Laws of 1911.) § 13. Certain educational and other charitable uses authorized. 1. Personal property may be granted, bequeathed, and conveyed to any incorporated college or other literary incorporated institution in this state, to be held in trust for any one or more of the following purposes: (1). To establish and maintain an observatory; (2). To found and maintain professorships and scholarships; (3). To provide and keep in repair a place for the burial of the dead; or (4). For any other specific purposes comprehended in the general objects authorized by their respective charters. The said trusts may be created, subject to such conditions and visitations as may be prescribed by the grantee or donor, and agreed to by said trustees, and all property which shall hereafter be granted to any incorporated college or other literary incorporated institution in trust for any of the aforesaid purposes, may be held by such college or institution upon such trusts, and subject to such conditions and visitations as may be prescribed and agreed to as aforesaid. 2. Personal estate may be granted, bequeathed, and conveyed to the corporation of any city or village of this state, to be held in trust for any purpose of education, or the diffusion of knowledge, or for the relief of distress, or for parks, gardens, or other ornamental grounds, or grounds for the purposes of military parades and exercise, or health and recreation, within or near such incorporated city or village, upon such conditions as may be prescribed by the grantor or donor, and agreed to by such corporation. 3. Personal estate may be granted, or bequeathed to commissioners of common schools of any town, and to trustees of any school district, in trust for the benefit of the common schools of such town, or for the benefit of the schools of such district. 4. The trusts authorized by this section may continue for such time as may be necessary to accomplish the purposes for which they may be created. * * § 14. Certain gifts for charitable and educational uses regulated. 1. Any person desiring, in his lifetime, to promote the public welfare by founding, endowing and having maintained a public library, museum or other educational institutions, or a chapel and crematory, within this state, may to that end and for such purposes by grant, in writing, convey to a trustee, or any number of trustees, named in such grant, and to their successors, any personal property belonging to such person. 2. The person making such grant may therein designate: (1). The nature, object and purposes of the institution to be founded, endowed and maintained. (2). The name by which it shall be known. (3). The powers and duties of the trustee or trustees and the inanner in which he or they shall account, and to whom, if accounting be required; but such powers and duties shall not be held to be exclusive of other powers which may be necessary to enable such trustee or trustees to fully carry out the object of such grant. (4). The mode and manner, and by whom, the successors to the trustee or trustees named in the grant are to be appointed. (5). Such rules and regulations for the management of the property conveyed as the grantor may elect to prescribe; but such rules shall, unless the grantor otherwise prescribe, be deemed advisory only, and shall not preclude such trustee or trustees from making such changes as new conditions may from time to time require. (6). The place or places where, and the time when, the building or buildings necessary and proper for the institution shall be erected, and the character and extent thereof. The person making such grant may therein provide for all other things necessary and proper to carry out the purposes thereof, and especially may such person provide for such lectures, exhibitions, instruction or amusement in connection with such institution as he may deem desirable. 3. The trustee or trustees named in such grant and their successors, may in the name of the institution, as designated in such grant, sue and defend, in relation to the trust property and in relation to all matters affecting the institution endowed and established by such grant. 4. The person making such grant, by a provision therein, may elect, in relation to the property conveyed and in relation to the erection, maintenance and management of such institution, to perform, during his life, all the duties and exercise all the powers which, by the terms of the grant, are enjoined upon and vested in the trustee or trustees therein named. If the person making such grant, and making the election aforesaid, be a married person, such person may further provide that if the wife of such person survive him, then such wife, during her life, may, in relation to the property conveyed, and in relation to the erection, maintenance and management of such institution, perform all the duties and exercise all the powers, which, by the terms of the grant, are enjoined upon and vested in the trustee or trustees therein named, and in all such cases the powers and duties conferred and imposed by such grant upon the trustee or trustees therein named, shall be exercised and performed by the person making such grant, or by his wife during his or her life, as the case may be; provided, however, that upon the death of such person, or his surviving wife, as the case may be, such powers and duties shall devolve upon and shall be exercised by the trustee or trustees named in the grant and their successors. 5. The person making such grant may therein reserve the right to alter, amend or modify the terms and conditions thereof and the trusts therein created, in respect to any of the matters mentioned or referred to in paragraphs numbered one to six inclusive of subdivision two hereof; and may also therein reserve the right, during the life of such person, of absolute dominion over the personal property conveyed, without liability to account therefor in any manner whatever, and without any liability over against the estate of such person; and if any such person be married, such person may, in said grant, further provide that if his wife survive him, then such wife, during her life, may have the same dominion over such personal property, without liability to account therefor in any manner whatever, and without liability over against the estate of either of the spouses. 6. Any such grant may be executed, acknowledged and recorded in the same manner as is now provided by law for the execution, acknowledging and recording of grants of real property. 7. No suit, action or proceedings shall be commenced or maintained by any person to set aside, annul or affect said conveyance, or to effect the title to the property conveyed, or the right to the possession, or to the issues and profits thereof, unless the same be commenced within two years after the date of filing such grant for record; nor shall any defense be made to any suit, action or proceeding commenced by the trustee or trustees named in said grant or their successors, privies or persons holding under them, which defense involves the legality of said grant, or affects the title to the property thereby conveyed, or the right to the possession or the issues and profits thereof, unless such defense is made in a suit, action or proceeding commenced within two years after such grant shall have been filed for record. § 20. When trust vests in supreme court. On the death of a last surviving or sole surviving trustee of an express trust, the trust estate does not pass to his next of kin or personal representative, but, if the trust be unexecuted, in the absence of a contrary direction on the part of the person creating the same, it vests in the supreme court and shall be executed by some person appointed by the court, whom the court may invest with all or any of the powers and duties of the original trustee or trustees. The beneficiary or beneficiaries of the trust shall have such notice as the court may direct of the application for the appointment of such person; and the person so appointed shall give such security as the court may require, and shall be subject to the same requirements of law as to accounting and as to the administration of the trust as apply to testamentary trustees; and shall be entitled to such compensation for his services by way of commissions as may be fixed by any court which has power to pass upon his final account, which shall in no case exceed that now allowed by law to executors and administrators, besides his just and reasonable expenses in the matter in which he is appointed. (As amended by chapter 217 of the Laws of 1911.) § 21. Investment of trust funds. A trustee or other person holding trust funds for investment may invest the same in the same kind of securities as those in which savings banks of this state are by law authorized to invest the money deposited therein, and the income derived therefrom, and in bonds and mortgages on unincumbered real property in this state worth fifty per centum more than the amount loaned thereon. A trustee or other person holding trust funds may require such personal bonds or guaranties of payment to accompany investments as may seem prudent, and all premiums paid on such guaranties may be charged to or paid out of income, providing that such charge or payment be not more than at the rate of one-half of one per centum per annum on the par value of such investments. But no trustee shall purchase securities hereunder from himself. * * * * * |