TRUSTS-ILLUSORY TRANSFER-RIGHTS OF SURVIVING WIDOW

On May 12, 1939, the testator created an inter vivos trust, the corpus consisting of roo shares of stock in a closed corporation, of which the testator was president and a director. He reserved the life income and the right to revoke or modify the trust agreement. The agreement gave no express authority to the trustee to sell or invest the trust property. It did, however, authorize the trustee to vote the stock, but further authorized him to enter into a trust agreement with the remaining four stockholders, which was done on May 15, 1939. This had the effect of nullifying the authority originally given to the trustee to vote the stock. The testator died on October 11, 1942; his surviving widow elected to take against the will and brought this action to have the trust declared void so that the property could be administered as part of her husband\u27s estate. Held, the trust was ineffective to deprive the surviving widow of her statutory share of the estate. Harris v. Harris, (Ohio 1947) 72 N.E. (2d) 378