Loring v. Marshall
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
484 N.E.2d 1315 (1985)
A trust granted each of two nephews a special power to appoint trust principal to his "wife and issue," with the whole trust passing to charities only if both nephews died without a surviving wife or issue as potential appointees; nephew Morse Sr., survived by his son (the sole surviving potential appointee) and his wife Anna, appointed only the income (not the principal) to Anna in his will, leaving the principal's disposition unaddressed. The trustees sought instructions on how to distribute the principal once it became distributable upon Anna's death.
Whether, where the donee of a special power of appointment fails to fully exercise the power and no language expressly provides for a default of appointment, the property may be distributed to the members of the class of potential appointees.