Estate of Crawshaw
Kansas Supreme Court
819 P.2d 613 (1991)
Chester Crawshaw's will left 15% of his estate to the Salvation Army and 85% to Marymount College in a perpetual, Crawshaw-named trust funding loans to nursing and other students, with no alternate disposition specified if either gift failed; Crawshaw had no personal relationship with Marymount, which ceased operating shortly after his death. Marymount (plaintiff) petitioned to apply the cy pres doctrine and redirect the trust to the Marymount Memorial Education Trust Fund (MMETF) benefiting nursing students at other schools, arguing Crawshaw's general intent was to support students broadly; the Salvation Army (defendant) objected, arguing Crawshaw specifically intended to benefit only Marymount and should receive the failed gift as remaining beneficiary instead. The district court and court of appeals both applied cy pres in Marymount's favor.
Whether, if a testator had a general charitable intent in making a gift to a charitable organization and that gift fails, a court may substitute another charitable organization as beneficiary to implement the testator's intent.