Plainfield Trust State National Bank v. Woolley

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Hall, J.

This case concerns the matter of treatment, as between principal and income, of distributions with respect to corporate securities held as assets of a trust. Specifically involved are distributions in the form of stock. The fundamental question posed is whether this court should now change the New Jersey common law rule on this subject as applied to trusts created prior to May 9, 1952.

Before that date, this State, in common with many, had followed, with certain local variants, the so-called Pennsylvania rule, named for the state of its origin,…