Trusts-Validity of Spendthrift Trust

Defendant, a judgment debtor, was one of three beneficiaries of a trust agreement which granted him an income of 1,500 dollars annually until his daughter reached the age of twenty-five, at which time he was to receive one-third of the corpus. The trust agreement contained a clause prohibiting voluntary or involuntary alienation of the beneficiary’s interest in the income or principal of the 91,000 dollar trust estate. Plaintiff-creditor’s attempt to apply the defendant’s right to receive annual income toward the satisfaction of a 41,000 dollar judgment was denied by the trial court and the Ohio court of appeals on the basis of these restrictive provisions. On appeal, held, reversed, three judges dissenting. In the absence of specific legislative authorization, a settlor may not exempt from the claims of creditors the continuing and enforceable right of a beneficiary to reach trust income. Sherrow v. Brookover, 174 Ohio St. 310, 189 N.E.2d 90 (1963).