Sec. 148.

Trustee corporations; definition. Corporations may be formed to carry out the terms of any written declaration, deed or testament making donations, grants, gifts or devises in trust for specific lawful purposes. Such corporations shall be known in law as “trustee corporations,” which term may also embrace other corporations as hereinafter provided for in this act. A trustee corporation is hereby defined to be any corporation wherein the trustees appointed by any instrument in writing, whether testamentary or otherwise, to have the title, care, custody or disposition of property or the income therefrom, in trust for such uses and purposes as may be named in such instrument, for the benefit of religious, charitable, benevolent, educational institutions or public benefaction of whatsoever name or nature and any other persons who may be lawfully associated with them, incorporate for the express and main purpose of carrying out the provisions of such trust. The term “trustee corporation” may also embrace any case in which trustees hold in their corporate name, any separate property of the corporation of which they are trustees for specific purposes defined or limited by any written instrument donating, setting aside or devoting such separate property for charitable, religious, benevolent, educational or other beneficial purpose, or where such property is so held by the said trustees under the terms of written instructions as to the use thereof from the governing body of any ecclesiastical, fraternal or charitable society, association or corporation. Such trustees shall in no case have any personal interest in or title to any part or portion of such trust property, nor derive any personal benefit from the principal or income thereof, excepting in the way of just compensation for their labor and skill in executing such trust or by way of reimbursement for necessary and actual expenses incurred in the management of such property or in the performance of their duties as such trustees, or except upon authority expressed in the original deed or instrument of trust. Nothing in this act contained shall be construed as preventing or prohibiting any trustees appointed or provided for under the terms of any deed, will or other written instrument to have the title or management of any property, whether real or personal, for the benefit of the donor or grantor therein or the heirs, dependents or other beneficiaries of such donor or grantor, and not for charitable, religious, educational or benevolent purposes, from incorporating under this act for the purpose of executing such trust, if such incorporation be permitted, directed or contemplated in such instrument, and the business of such corporation, when organized, is one which a corporation might otherwise carry on under this act: Provided, That declarations of trust shall not be sufficient in themselves to authorize the trustees named therein to assume corporate powers, but all such trustees referred to in this act shall be incorporated only in the manner prescribed in and by complying with the provisions of this act. Trustee corporations shall be governed by the provisions of this act relating to corporations generally except as specifically otherwise provided.

History: 1931, Act 327, Eff. Sept. 18, 1931 ;-- CL 1948, 450.148 Compiler's Notes: The catchline following the act section number was incorporated as part of the section when the act was enacted.Former Law: See section 3 of Ch. I of Part I of Act 84 of 1921, being CL 1929, § 9945; and section 1 of Ch. I of Part IV of Act 84 of 1921, being CL 1929, § 10077.