- 36 - encroaching on this trust”. Based on these recitations, respondent maintains that Mrs. Lassiter is not entitled to all income; rather, she is entitled only to so much of the income as falls within the ascertainable standard of what is necessary for her support in reasonable comfort, and any amount in excess thereof is to be accumulated. Respondent further characterizes Mrs. Lassiter’s interest in the Item V trust as secondary and comments that distributions may be made to her only after considering the income and corpus of the Item IV trust. Conversely, it is the estate’s position that in absence of any explicit direction regarding the timing and amount of distributions or the accumulation of income, both Ga. Code Ann. section 53-12-190 (1997) and Friedman v. United States, 364 F. Supp. 484 (S.D. Ga. 1973), establish Mrs. Lassiter’s right to all income at least annually. The estate also argues that the reference to encroachment relates only to distributions of principal and has no impact on Mrs. Lassiter’s right to income. We deal first with this apparent dispute over the effect of the encroachment clause. In the context of trust law, the term “encroach” is commonly used and understood to refer to invasion of trust corpus or principal. For example, Ga. Code Ann. section 53-12-250 (1997) is entitled “Disposition of income; encroachment on corpus”. Specifically in the 1970 will, the word is employed in two other instances, each making explicit the connectionPage: Previous 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Next
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