142 Mass. 448 | Mass. | 1886
The plaintiff relies on the vote of the Trustees of the Smith Charities passed on June 24, 1884, as creating an obligation to the principal defendant, of which he might avail himself. The question arises out of the somewhat peculiar method adopted by the Trustees of administering their trust, in respect to the loan to the defendant. Instead of lending the money for a fixed term, not over five years, during which the beneficiary would know that he could have the use of it,
But whatever their intention at the time, the mere vote would not, of itself alone, amount to a gift of the money to the defendant. There was no previous understanding that such a vote should be passed. The defendant knew nothing of it. Nothing was done in pursuance of it, prior to the commencement of the plaintiff’s action. The plaintiff appears to have obtained early information, in some way not disclosed, of the vote, and to have taken prompt action, with a view to availing herself of it. The vote, however, was merely a voluntary act, to which the defendant was in no way a party or privy, and no surrender or transfer was made to him or to any person in his behalf. In order to give to him a present absolute right to the money, there must have been, not only an intention to make a present gift of it to him, but enough must have been done in execution of such intention to make the gift complete. Scott v. Berkshire County Savings Bank, 140 Mass. 157, 166. Sherman v. New Bedford Savings Bank, 138 Mass. 581. Ide v. Pierce, 134 Mass. 260. Gerrish v. New Bedford Institution for Savings, 128 Mass. 159. Cummings v. Bramhall, 120 Mass. 552, 564. Shurtleff v. Francis, 118 Mass. 154. Clark v. Clark, 108 Mass. 522. Brabrook v. Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, 104 Mass. 228.
Exceptions overruled.