98 Ala. 454 | Ala. | 1893
This bill is exhibited by J. W. Chambers and W. H. Chambers, as the administrators of the estate of Isaac H. Chambers, deceased, against George H. Chambers, Mary A. Chambers and Malinda Chambers, who are, as are also the complainants, heirs at law and children of the intestate. The case made by its averments, is this : Isaac H. Chambers, during his last illness, had at his .residence, but in a different room from' that in which he lay, a fire-proof comlfination lock safe, in' which he kept a considerable sum of money — about four thousand dollars — some account books, and dioses in action, a mortgage evidencing and securing an indebtedness amounting to about twelve hundred dollars of said George Chambers to him, being among the latter. On the forenoon of the day preceding his death, said Mary Chambers, being alone in the room with her father, “asked him for the combination of the safe, stating .certain reasons for wanting it; he told her that the paper with the combination on it was in his coat pocket, but refused to let her or anyone else have it before he died.” Af-terwards when he fell asleep, said Mary took some papers
Respondents demurred to the bill, and assigned the following grounds:
1. “The bill shows a larceny or tresspass in taking the money and other things out of the safe of Isaac H. Chambers in his life time, and if complainants had any rights, they have an adequate and complete remedy at law. 2. The bill nowhere alleges any fraud on the part of the defendants whereby a trust might be created. 3. The bill nowhere alleges any confidence or trust reposed in the defendants by Isaac H. Chambers, deceased, to give the complainants, who have no more rights than their intestate would have had, if he had lived, the remedy here invoked. 4. The bill shows on its face that as to the money alleged to have been taken from the iron safe in the life time of Isaac H. Chambers, deceased, if the complainants have any rights as to the money, they had adequate and complete remedy at law. 5. That on the allegations of the bill, it appears that this court has no jurisdiction of the subject-matter about which complaint is made in this bill.”
The court overruled this demurrer, and from the decree in that behalf this appeal is prosecuted.
It is insisted for appellees that the facts averred in the bill involve a charge of fraud against the respondents, against which equity will relieve because of the absence of an adequate legal remedy, and also, that on the case made, the respondents are trustees de son tort of the money and choses in action in controversy for the estate of Isaac H. Chambers, deceased. Both these contentions are, in our opinion, unsound.
The facts present no case of fraud, but wholly a case of simple trespass or larceny. There was no undue influence resorted to to get possession of the property, no overreaching, no false representations, or fraudulent concealment practised as means of acquiring the possession and control
It is equally clear that the transaction inyolved no element of an express trust'. No trust or confidence was reposed in the respondents by Chambers in respect of this property. George and Mary Chambers secured possession of this property in the life time of the owner, not only without his consent, or knowledge even, but against his expressed wish and purpose. He not only did not intend that they should take the property with the understanding that they should dispose of it in a certain way or hold it for certain purposes, but he did not consent to their possession of it at all. Every material element of an express trust is lacking. Does the transaction involve a constructive trust? It is toó clear for much discussion that considered as between the respondents and Isaac H. Chambers in his life time, no such trust can be evolved out of the premises. Had the respondents acquired the title to this property by fraud, they would have been constructive trustees for the benefit of Isaac H. Chambers, while he lived, and for his. estate now. But they clearly acquired no title to the property by fraud or otherwise; they have no title to it now, and have, as we have seen, committed, no fraud but rather a trespass or larceny. Clearly too, if the property when they intermeddled with and acquired the possession of it was trust property, they would be held to have taken it subject to the trust and thereby to have made themselves trustees in invitum. But at that time the property had no semblance of a trust character.' It was simply held and owned by Isaac H. Chambers in his own right and to his own beneficial use. To hold that the respondents by depriving him — not of his title, for that of course remained in him, but, — of his possession and use became trustees for his benefit would be to convert all wrongful possessions into trust estates and all persons who tor-tiously acquire the possession of the property of another into trustees for the owner, a result which finds no support in principle or authority. An essential element of all trusts is a use in a person other than the trustee or rather, since the statute of uses, a trust is a use not executed into a legal estate. Not only was this element wholly wanting in the case as it stood between George and Mary Chambers, on the
It may be that if George and Mary Chambers took possession of the money and papers in the life time of Isaac H. not for the purpose of conversion to their own use simply, or of making such dispositions of it as they would of their own property, but for the purpose of holding it till after his death as his property, and then dividing and distributing it in accordance with written directions left by him, and if they held it in this way and for this purpose till a time .subsequent to his death and then assumed to divide and distribute it as assets of his estate that they and Malinda Chambers would, on these facts, be held to be trustees. We
Reversed and remanded.