Hugo Black

Name: Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court
Author: Hugo Black

Summary

“Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court”, is a work by Hugo Black. It explores elements such as Baconsfield, trust and Georgia.

Quotes from Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court (Hugo Black)

Hugo Black, Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court

“ Surely the Fourteenth Amendment is not violated where, as here, a state court operating in its judicial capacity fairly applies its normal principles of construction to determine the testator's true intent in establishing a charitable trust and then reaches a conclusion with regard to that intent which, because of the operation of neutral and nondiscriminatory state trust laws, effectively denies everyone, whites as well as Negroes, the benefits of the trust. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugo Black, Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court

“ The motion was opposed by petitioners and by the Attorney General of Georgia, both of whom argued that the trust should be saved by applying the cy pres doctrine to amend the terms of the will by striking the racial restrictions and opening Baconsfield to all the citizens of Macon without regard to race or color. The trial court, however, refused to apply cy pres. It held that the doctrine was inapplicable because the park's segregated, whites-only character was an essential and inseparable part of the testator's plan. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugo Black, Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court

“ The Baconsfield trust was therefore held to have failed, and, under Georgia law, ' (w) here a trust is expressly created, but (its) uses * * * fail from any cause, a resulting trust is implied for the benefit of the grantor, or testator, or his heirs.' Ga.Code Ann. § 108-106 (4) (1959) . [2] The Georgia courts concluded, in effect, that Senator Bacon would have rather had the whole trust fail than have Baconsfield integrated.
When a city park is destroyed because the Constitution requires it to be integrated, there is reason for everyone to be disheartened. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugo Black, Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court

“ But this underlying logic of the cy pres doctrine implies that there is a certain class of cases in which the doctrine cannot be applied. Professor Scott in his treatise on trusts states this limitation on the doctrine of cy pres which is common to many States [1] as follows:
'It is not true that a charitable trust never fails where it is impossible to carry out the particular purpose of the testator. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugo Black, Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court

“ We agree with petitioners that in such a case it is not enough to find that the state court's result was reached through the application of established principles of state law. No state law or act can prevail in the face of contrary federal law, and the federal courts must search out the fact and truth of any proceeding or transaction to determine if the Constitution has been violated. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugo Black, Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court

“ More fundamentally, however, the loss of charitable trusts such as Baconsfield is part of the price we pay for permitting deceased persons to exercise a continuing control over assets owned by them at death. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugo Black, Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court

“ Another argument made by petitioners is that the decision of the Georgia courts holding that the Baconsfield trust had 'failed' must rest logically on the unspoken premise that the presence or proximity of Negroes in Baconsfield would destroy the desirability of the park for whites. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Hugo Black, Evans v. Abney — Opinion of the Court

“ On the contrary, the language of the Senator's will shows that the racial restrictions were solely the product of the testator's own full-blown social philosophy. Similarly, the situation presented in this case is also easily distinguishable from that presented in Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1, 68 S.Ct. 836, 92 L.Ed. 1161 (1948) , where we held unconstitutional state judicial action which had affirmatively enforced a private scheme of discrimination against Negroes. ”

Hugo Black

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