Stoner

Andrew Norman, a wealthy man, was the trustor of an amendable living trust. Defendant Andrew Norman Foundation, a nonprofit corporation, receives for use for its general charitable purposes the net income from the trust after the payment of fees, expenses and specified amounts to designated individuals.

On January 14, 1958, the trustor amended the trust to include plaintiff Dorothy B. Stoner as one of the individuals to receive a specified amount before distribution of the remainder to the corporation. Upon the death of Andrew Norman, plaintiff was to receive $500 per month “provided she is unmarried on that date, and continuing for her lifetime or until her remarriage.” Andrew Norman died October 23, 1959, and plaintiff received 12 monthly payments. The trustee ceased making payments to plaintiff when plaintiff informed the trustee that on October 1, 1960, she had married Gerald T. McNees.

McNees was married to another woman at the time he married plaintiff. Thus plaintiff’s marriage to McNees was “illegal and void from the beginning.” (Civ. Code, § 61, now Civ. Code, § 4401.) Although plaintiff knew that McNees was a resident of California and that he had obtained no…