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Keywords

lawsuittrustwilldiscrimination
pleatrustwilldue process

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Evans v. Abney, 396 U.S. 435, 90 S.Ct. 628, 24 L.Ed.2d 634

Facts

In 1911, Senator A.O. Bacon executed a will that established a trust for a public park in Macon, Georgia, intended for the exclusive use of white people. Over time, the city allowed Negroes to use the park, leading to a lawsuit by members of the park's Board of Managers to remove the city as trustee. The Georgia courts ultimately determined that the trust could not be fulfilled due to constitutional mandates against racial discrimination, resulting in the trust's failure and reversion of the property to Bacon's heirs.

In 1911 United States Senator Augustus O. Bacon executed a will that devised to the Mayor and Council of the City of Macon, Georgia, a tract of land which, after the death of the Senator's wife and daughters, was to be used as ‘a park and pleasure ground’ for white people only, the Senator stating in the will that while he had only the kindest feeling for the Negroes he was of the opinion that ‘in their social relations the two races (white and negro) should be forever separate.’

Issue

Did the Georgia Supreme Court's ruling that the testamentary trust had failed and the property reverted to the heirs violate the rights of Negro citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment?

Petitioners, the same Negro citizens of Macon who have sought in the courts to integrate the park, contend that this termination of the trust violates their rights to equal protection and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Rule

The Georgia courts applied the principle that a charitable trust must be executed according to the testator's intent, and if that intent becomes impossible to fulfill, the trust fails. The cy pres doctrine, which allows modification of charitable trusts to fulfill the general intent of the testator, was deemed inapplicable due to the specific racial restrictions in Bacon's will.

The Georgia courts have held that the fundamental purpose of these cy pres provisions is to allow the court to carry out the general charitable intent of the testator where this intent might otherwise be thwarted by the impossibility of the particular plan or scheme provided by the testator.

Analysis

The court found that the specific intent of Senator Bacon was to create a park exclusively for white people, and since this intent could not be fulfilled without violating constitutional principles, the trust was deemed to have failed. The Georgia courts concluded that the cy pres doctrine could not be applied to alter the terms of the will, as the racial restrictions were an essential part of Bacon's plan.

The Georgia courts, construing Senator Bacon's will as a whole, concluded from this and other language in the will that the Senator's charitable intent was not ‘general’ but extended only to the establishment of a segregated park for the benefit of white people.

Conclusion

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Georgia Supreme Court's decision, holding that the termination of the trust and reversion of the property to Bacon's heirs did not violate the constitutional rights of the Negro citizens.

The judgment is Affirmed.

Who won?

City of Macon; the court ruled in favor of the city by affirming the Georgia Supreme Court's decision that the trust had failed due to its racially discriminatory nature.

The Georgia court accepted the resignation of the city as trustee and appointed three individuals as new trustees, finding it unnecessary to pass on the other claims of the heirs.

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