150 Ga. 544 | Ga. | 1920
(After stating the foregoing facts.) The doctrine of a resulting trust in favor of a third person paying the purchase-money of an estate is declared in Anon. (1683), 2 Vent. 361 (entitled Bird v. Blosse, 1 Vern. 366), as follows: “Where a man buys land in another’s name 'and pays money, it will be in trust for him that pays the money, though no deed declaring the trust, for the Statute of 29 Car. 2, called the Statute of Frauds, doth not extend to trusts raised by operation of law.” In Dyer v. Dyer, 2 Cox, 92, 93, 1 White and Tudor’s Lead. Cas. Eq. 203, Lord Chief Baron Eyre thus explained the doctrine: “ The clear result of all the cases, without a single exception, is that the trust of a legal estate, whether freehold, copyhold, or leasehold; whether taken in the names of the purchaser and others jointly, or in the name of others without that of the purchaser; whether in one name or several; whether jointly or successive, — results to the man who advances the purchase-money. This is a general proposition, supported by all the cases, and there is nothing to contradict it; and it goes on a strict analogy to the rule of the common law, that, where a feoffment is made without consideration, the use
It is insisted that the plaintiff in error, in his rejected amendments, sought to establish a trust in the land by parol testimony. The agreement by the wife to hold the land for the benefit of the husband being express, it is contended that the case is within the statute of frauds. It will be noticed that the husband did not aver that the conveyance was made to the wife upon an express declaration by him or upon an express oral promise by her that the land should be held for the use of the husband. It is, however, averred that the husband did not intend to make a gift to the wife, and that the wife understood that no gift was intended, but understood that she was to hold the land for the husband and was to make a conveyance to him as he might desire. If the amendments are construed as alleging an express oral ■ agreement by the wife, it is difficult to see how the trust, conceding the trust, can be logically treated as a resulting trust. As we have said, a resulting trust is an implied-in-fact or inferred trust. It is, not based upon fraud or misrepresentation. On the contrary, the basis of the true constructive trust is fraud, actual or “constructive,” and our own cases, it must be conceded, seem to require actual fraud. It may be that the trust is not resulting, but constructive. This is the view of Dean Ames (see 20 Harv. Law Rev. 349) and of Professor Costigan of the Northwestern University (see 27 Harv. Law Rev. 437). According to these writers, the express oral promise takes the case out of the category of resulting trusts, and equity, upon the repudiation of the promise by the faithless grantee, imposes a trust to prevent the grantee from retaining the trust res as his own, applying the unjust-enrichment doctrine. These writers assert that a' dishonest and evil intention at the time of the conveyance and an evil and dishonest intention subsequently formed, if followed by a retention of the trust res, are one and the same — actual fraud.
However, in those jurisdictions where the resulting trust has not been abolished, it is generally held that the trust is resulting. In Barrows v. Bohan, 41 Conn. 278, 283, Carpenter, J., said: “ The
That our code excepts from the statute of frauds resulting and constructive trusts is not open to doubt. §§ 3735, 3739, 3740. That “ In all cases where a trust is sought to be implied, the court may hear parol evidence of the nature of the transaction, or the circumstances, or the conduct of the parties, either to imply or rebut a trust,” is expressly declared. § 3741. Section 3258, which declares, “A deed or bill of sale, absolute on its face and accompanied with possession of the property, shall not be proved (at the instance of the parties) by parol evidence to be a mortgage only, unless fraud in its procurement is the issue to be tried,” has no application to the present case. It is unnecessary to assert that the rule of evidence prescribed by the code is restricted to the single instance there stated. The legislature of this State in the act of 1837 codified in section 3258, supra, did not abolish the doctrine of implied or resulting and constructive, trusts in this State. The doctrine has since been recognized in many cases. See Miller v. Cotton, 5 Ga. 341; Williams v. Turner, 7 Ga. 348. The second headnote in Brown v. Burke, 22 Ga. 574, is as follows: “ The purchase of land by a parent in the name of a child is presumptively an advancement; but that presumption is subject to be rebutted by evidence.” Trusts resulting by implication of law are discussed in Poulet v. Johnson, 25 Ga. 403, 411, and it was there said by Benning, J., that resulting trusts “ may still be manifested
The defendant in error relies upon the decision in Jackson v. Jackson, 146 Ga. 675 (92 S. E. 65). That case was between the parties to this case; and it was there held that under the allegations of the petition a trust did not result to the husband. Upon its facts the case is, in many respects, very much like the ease at bar. The husband there alleged, as he here offered to plead, that no gift of the property (land) was contemplated or intended; that the wife never claimed any interest in the property until long after the conveyance to her had been made by direction of the husband, the payer of the purchase-money; that the wife persuaded the husband to have the deed made in her name, and the husband caused the conveyance to be made to her “ with a view to humoring her, and with the distinct understanding that the beneficial or equitable title still remained” in the husband. It was further alleged in that case that the representations of the wife were false and fraudulent, “and made with a view of deceiving, misleading, and defrauding” the husband. That decision followed Vickers v. Vickers, 133 Ga. 383 (65 S. E. 885, 24 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1043), in which it was held: “Where for any reason the legal title to property is placed in one person under such circumstances as to make it inequitable for him to enjoy the beneficial interest, a trust will be implied in favoT of the person entitled thereto; but an absolute gift will not be cut down by implication into a trust merely because the donor at the time he made the.gift hoped and believed that the donee would permit him to participate in the beneficial interest of the property.” The case of Wilder v. Wilder, supra, was distinguished. The ground upon which it was distinguished was that “there the mother bought the land with her own funds and caused the title to be made to her son under an agreement that the property was to be hers, and the son was to make to her such conveyance as she might require.” It is apparent, therefore, that the case of Jackson v. Jackson, supra, was decided
It is insisted in the brief of counsel for the defendant in error that the amendments were properly disallowed, because they were not verified as required by section 5640 of the Civil Code. This objection was not made to the allowance of the amendments at the time they were offered; and it appears from the recitals in the bill of exceptions that the judge disallowed the amendments, not because of the failure to attach the statutory affidavit, but upon the ground that the same set forth no defense to the action, either in law or in equity. The point is ruled adversely to the contention of the defendant in error, in Edwards v. Boyd, 136 Ga. 733, 738 (72 S. E. 34.)
Judgment reversed.