Industrial National Bank of Rhode Island v. Barrett
Rhode Island Supreme Court
220 A.2d 517 (1966)
Arthur Tilley's will placed property in trust for his wife Mary, naming Industrial National Bank (plaintiff) as trustee and giving Mary a general testamentary power of appointment over the remaining corpus at her death. Mary's will exercised that power, directing the trust continue for her granddaughters Aline and Evelyn (defendant) or their children, terminating 21 years after the last survivor's death among those alive when Mary died. The bank and Aline (as Mary's executor) sought a court construction confirming the arrangement didn't violate the rule against perpetuities, arguing the perpetuities clock should run from Mary's exercise of the power rather than from Arthur's original creation of it.
Whether, when a trust gives a beneficiary a general power of appointment, the rule against perpetuities period is counted from the date the power is exercised rather than from the date the power was created.