Beals v. State Street Bank & Trust Co.

Arthur Hunnewell's will put his estate in trust for his wife and daughters, giving each daughter a power to appoint the trust principal in her own will after her lifetime. One daughter, Isabella, later filed a partial release of her power, giving up the ability to appoint anyone except her father's descendants. Isabella's own will left her estate to her deceased sister Margaret's children, without expressly mentioning the power of appointment. Isabella was survived by another sister, Jane, whose children would take under the trust's default distribution if Isabella were found not to have exercised her power. The trustees (plaintiffs) petitioned for instructions on how to distribute the trust principal, since it mattered whether Isabella's general residuary clause exercised her partially released power of appointment.