In re the Trusts Under the Will of Crabtree

In these consolidated appeals, which we transferred to this court on our own motion, we consider, among other issues, the circumstances in which a judge in the Probate arid Family Court may invoke S.J.C. Rule 1:07, as amended, 431 Mass. 1301 (2000), concerning fee-generating appointments by the court, when considering a petition to appoint a trustee of a charitable trust who is “prayed for by name” in the petition.1 In this case, a will drawn early in the last century established several trusts and named three trustees, but contained no provision for the trustees’ replacements. In 2000 one of…