Telephones, Inc. v. LaPrade

In his will, Burgie Lee Fisher created the Fisher Charitable Trust, to be composed mainly of his stock in the Lee Telephone Company of Martinsville, authorizing his executors, “in their absolute discretion ... to hold and retain” the stock “as long as they may deem advisable,” and then directing them,, “in their sole and absolute discretion,” to sell the stock and transfer the proceeds therefrom to his trustees who were empowered, when they deemed “it proper and propitious to do so,” to distribute such proceeds to the religious institutions designated in the will.

This litigation, which…