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Nobody Said Stewardship Was Easy: Charity Makes Tough Call with Life Tenant

Bequests in the News

In the case of Volunteer Services for Animals, Inc. v. Dorothy M. Collins, 2025 WL 3170486 (U.S.D.C., D. Mass.), the federal District Court in Massachusetts reviewed a challenging case involving a local animal welfare organization and a bequest of a deteriorating piece of real estate. Volunteer Services for Animals (VSA) is a long-established charity providing a multitude of services to benefit domesticated and wild animals. In this case, Ms. Inez Rego bequeathed a piece of residential property in Massachusetts to VSA. However, the bequest was subject to life estates granted to three people. VSA would own the property when the last of the three died.

Ms. Rego passed away in 1989, but the life tenants turned out to be a hardy bunch. The first died in 1995 and the second not until 2019. The last survivor is nonagenarian Dorothy Collins.

VSA was monitoring the property (a wise thing to do) and became aware that it was decaying on Ms. Collins’ watch. Moreover, real estate taxes were going unpaid. However, an investigation revealed that Ms. Collins had been declared legally incapacitated by a Massachusetts court and was under the care of a guardian. Therefore, she was not intentionally allowing this to happen, but it was happening nonetheless.

VSA was therefore grappling with a Gordian knot. Neither choice was appealing. Should it allow the continued deterioration of the property, thereby undermining the purposes of Ms. Rego’s bequest? Or would it be better for the organization to seek termination of Ms. Collins’ life estate, risk bad publicity, and take action that felt lousy?

Cutting to the chase, VSA chose the latter course and succeeded in court. Ms. Collins will be relocated to an assisted living facility, and the house will pass to VSA, for prompt rehabilitation and sale. Volunteer Services for Animals, Inc. v. Dorothy M. Collins, 2025 WL 3170486 (U.S.D.C., D. Mass.).

CCK Comment

Charitable beneficiaries of bequests have an obligation to shepherd the gift to completion. Occasionally, this duty extends for decades, as it did here.

In our view, VSA took the right, but difficult, course. The value of the property (which we determined from public records) is sufficient to have a profound impact on VSA’s mission. Moreover, the status quo was unacceptable for all parties, especially Ms. Collins. VSA demonstrated its good faith by waiving all claims against the life tenant for neglect of the property. In addition, it assumed responsibility for the litigation expenses of the guardian. Ideally, Ms. Collins’ living situation will now improve and VSA will be able to continue, and even increase, its important services. Thanks to the organization’s oversight and action, a bequest from four decades ago will be brought to fruition.

Readers may have noted that the litigation was conducted in federal court, which is not the typical forum for probate issues. While the matter was bequest related, it was not a reopening of estate administration. Although VSA could have proceeded in Massachusetts state court, the federal court was available to them because of its “diversity” jurisdiction (where the plaintiff and defendant are from different states).

Originally posted on March 4, 2026, on our LinkedIn.