Ladysmith Rescue Squad, Inc. v. Newlin

Miller Hart Cosby's will created a charitable trust naming Donald Newlin and William Howell (defendants) as trustees, providing lifetime income to four named beneficiaries (protected from creditors by a spendthrift clause and barred from touching the trust corpus), with the remainder to be split between the Upper Caroline Volunteer Fire Department and the Ladysmith Volunteer Rescue Squad (plaintiff) only after all four income beneficiaries died. By 2009, two income beneficiaries remained, and those beneficiaries together with Upper Caroline moved the court to split the single trust into two separate trusts and to authorize immediately terminating the Upper Caroline portion, paying out both the remaining income beneficiaries and Upper Caroline right away rather than waiting for the beneficiaries' deaths. The circuit court granted both requests, and Ladysmith appealed, arguing this would frustrate Cosby's clearly expressed intent.