United States v. The Commercial National Bank of Kansas City and the Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis

MARVIN JONES, Senior Judge:

On June 19, 1954, decedent Frank E. Washburn had executed a revocable trust under which the income was to be paid to himself during his lifetime, thereafter to his wife Lucy Tullock Washburn if she survived him, or to his sister if she survived him and his wife. Upon the death of the last income beneficiary, the trust estate was to be terminated and the principal distributed evenly among two charitable organizations and four of decedent’s nephews.

Paragraph 5 of the trust empowered the trustee to invade the principal for the benefit of decedent’s wife. Because the…