Athalie Irvine Smith v. The James Irvine Foundation, a Corporation

This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Plaintiff - appellant, Athalie Irvine Smith, is a citizen of the State of Virginia while, for the purposes of Federal jurisdiction, all defendants-appellees are citizens of the State of California. Jurisdiction in the district court was thus invoked under 28 U.S.C. § 1332 and was based on diversity of citizenship. It is undisputed that the law of California applies.

The district court, in its learned and exhaustive memorandum opinion, Smith v. The James Irvine Foundation, 277 F.Supp. 774 (C.D.Calif., 1967), quite ably collated and detailed the material facts of this case. That effort need not be duplicated here. Our task on this appeal is basically that of determining whether the district court erred in holding that the trust indenture executed by James Irvine on February 24, 1937, established a valid trust for charitable purposes ; that a charitable foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, had valid title to the disputed shares of stock passing under the trust indenture; and that neither the heirs at law of James Irvine nor the beneficiaries under his will had any right,…