40 Mass. 148 | Mass. | 1839
delivered the opinion of the Court. This case has been argued on the facts stated in the bill and answer. The plaintiffs filed the general replication, but no evidence has been taken, and we understand by the remarks of counsel in the argument, that all the facts stated in the bill, and not denied in the answer, were intended to be admitted. We have accordingly so considered them.
The bill sets forth, that the town of Raynham, from the t.me of its incorporation in 1731, until 1833, acted as a municipality and parish ; that in 1796 the town, acting parochially, ordered a sale of certain unappropriated floor room in their meetinghouse, to begin a fund for the support of a congregational minister ; that the proceeds were kept until March 1798, when an act was passed, by which the trustees of the fund were incorporated ; and that it was provided in the act, that the fund should be applied to the support of a teacher of piety,
Upon these facts, we think it manifest that the plaintiffs are entitled to the proceeds of the trust fund. The members of the plaintiff parish or society, attended public worship in the new meetinghouse built in the place of the meetinghouse mentioned in the act incorporating the trustees of the fund, the Rev. Mr Sandford, who is made a party in the suit, having long been, and still continuing to be, their minister and public teacher ot piety, religion and morality ; and by the express words of the act, the proceeds of the trust fund were to be applied to the support of such a public teacher in that meetinghouse. On the organization of the First Congregational Society, it became the successor of the town, and entitled to the same right and interest in the trust fund which was originally vested in the town in its parochial capacity. The town, as a municipality, had no interest in the fund ; and no other religious society in the town except the plaintiffs, appear to have any title derived from the. town. A society was organized in 1827, but it was organized under the name of the Second Congregational Society, and clearly had no right or interest in the fund ; nor does it appear, that it has ever claimed any. It is averred in the answer, that, in 1837, another society was formed, and that they erected a meetinghouse near the centre of the town ; that a teacher of
But the defendants’ counsel contend, that the plaintiffs have a plain, adequate and complete remedy at law, and that for this reason the Court has no jurisdiction as a court of equity. This objection Seems to have been made too late, after the defendants had answered' the bill and submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court. If the Court has jurisdiction of the subject matter in dispute, any other objection to the jurisdiction of the Court should have been made without delay and at the earliest opportunity. Ludlow v. Simond, 2 Caines’s Cas. 40.
There is, however, no foundation for the objection. The most appropriate remedy for enforcing the performance of all trusts is to be found in a court of equity. There may be cases where a party may have an adequate remedy at law for a breach of trust, but the cases are rare ; and I am not aware of any case in which a court of equity has refused to enforce a trust on the ground that the plaintiff had an adequate remedy at law ; certainly not, if the party seeking relief is entitled to a discovery, or if the trustee is bound to state an account of the amount of the trust fund and its proceeds, as the defendants are bound to do in the present case.
We think also there is no ground for the other objection made by the defendants’ counsel, as to the supposed misjoinder and non-joinder of the proper parties. This objection does not
Defendants’ objections to the bill overruled. Referred to a master, to take an account.