Estate of Miller

This is an appeal by Mary Agnes Miller, the surviving widow of Hugh Miller, deceased, from the decree settling the final account and distributing the estate of the decedent.

The decedent left a will which creates a trust as to all of his property. It names two of the decedent’s brothers, Robert B. and George R., and a third person, Irvine P. Aten, as trustees of the trust, and it requests that those same persons be appointed as executors. It provides that no bond be required of any one of them, either as executor or trustee. It authorizes those three “. . . in both their capacities as executors and trustees, to manage, control, sell, lease, invest and reinvest any of the assets . . . during the time of said executorship and trusteeship.” Except as we will presently note, the creation of a fund is not mentioned in the will. Some of the large properties of the decedent consisted of holdings in two companies called respectively the Barton Vineyard Company and the Startup Orchard Company. The latter company does business and has an orchard at Startup, in the State of Washington, and one of the trustees, Robert B. Miller, resides at the orchard. It is but reasonable to assume that he…