8 Ga. 97 | Ga. | 1850
By the Court.
delivering the opinion.
Two questions were made on the argument of this cause, by the plaintiff in error—
First — whether the allegations in the complainant’s bill are sufficient to give to a Court of Equity jurisdiction of the cause %
Second — whether the complainant’s right to call the defendant to account with her, concerning the money and property placed in his hands, and entrusted to his management, for her benefit, is not, according to the allegations made in her bill, barred by the Statute of Limitations?
The plaintiff in error insists, that it is not alleged in the bill, that it is necessary to search the conscience of the defendant for a discovery, to enable her to obtain a decree against him. The reply is, that the complainant has made such allegations as make it affirmatively appear, on the face of the bill, that such a discovery is necessary. The allegation of such facts, as make it appear that a discovery from the defendant is necessary to enable her to obtain a decree, will give to the Court jurisdiction, and is equally as satisfactory as if the allegation, that it was necessary, had been inserted without the facts. The very nature and history of this transaction, as disclosed by the record, necessarily gives to a Court of Equity jurisdiction. It has been earnestly insisted before us, that the claim of the complainant is, by her own showing, barred by the Statute of Limitations, and that, if in the view of the Court, the defendant shall be considered as a trustee for the complainant, still it is such a trust as against which the Statute of Limitations will run.
There are two general classes of trusts — First, express trusts, created by the act of the parties, or by the appointment of the law. Under this head may be included executors and administrators, guardians of infants, bailees, factors, agents, persons who receive money to be paid to another, or to be applied to a particular purpose, and those who fill any fiduciary situation, created either by the act of the patties, or by the appointment of the law. Every deposit, says Chancellor Kent, in Kane vs. Bloodgood, (7 Johns. Ch. R. 110,) is a direct trust.
Second, implied trusts, as where persons claiming property in their otvn right, are, by the decree of a Court of Equity, founded on fraud or the like, held to be trustees by implication of law.
Many cases have been cited at the bar in relation to the application of the Statute of Limitations to trusts and trustees. Without attempting to reconcile and harmonize the apparent conflict
Then let us apply the facts of the case before us, to the fore
The complainant deposited in the hands of the defendant a large amount of money and property, to be used, managed and invested for her benefit, in the trust and confidence that be would so use, manage, and invest it, as would be most conducive to her interest, and that he would account to her for the same, and the profits arising therefrom, whenever requested by her to do so. The defendant accepted the trust, by receiving the money and property, for the purposes designated, and has made large profits from the same. Independent of the alleged settlement, which we shall hereafter notice, it appears that the trust continued as a subsisting trust in the hands of the defendant, from the time he accepted it, until the first of May, 1849, when her agent called on him for an account, which he refused, and denied that he had any of her property or effects in his hands. The Statute of Limitations, then, did not begin to run in favor of the defendant, according to the allegations made in the bill, until 'May, 1849, unless the alleged settlement stated therein constitutes a starting point for the operation of the Statute. The plaintiff in error contends, that the Statute commenced running from the time of the alleged settlement. Was that settlement made, or pretended to have been made, in relation to the money and property originally deposited in the hands of the defendant by the complainant, or was it made in relation to the lands mentioned in the deed executed to the complainant by the defendant, to avoid the effect of the anticipated recovery in the crim. con. suit against the defendant 1 After stating that the defendant had erased from the deed all the numbers of the lots of land of any value, the complainant alleges that the defendant, in the month of November, 1844, called on her, and said “he wanted to settle with her in relation to said lands’’ The complainant admits she signed a receipt prepared for her by the defendant, for the purpose of discharging himself from further liability, on. account of said lands, to her. What lands % The lands mentioned in the deed executed by the defendant to the complainant, on the 12th day of September, 1839, for the purpose stated in her bill, and under which, she claims no interest in this suit. That the settlement was had in relation to the lands mentioned in that deed, and which had been erased by the defendant, is the more apparent, by reference to the receipt
“ Georgia — Baker County.
“ This is to certify, that the within numbers in this deed, that is marked out, has been sold by B. O. Keaton for me, and the proceeds turned over to me by him, the said B. O. Keaton, this, the 2d day of November, 1844.
“E. M. M. GREENWOOD.
“ Teste : James Jeffries.”'-
From the allegations in the bill, as well as from the receipt itself on the back of the deed, we are clearly of the opinion, that the alleged settlement had reference to the lands mentioned in that deed, and not to the money and property which had been turned over to the defendant, in trust, for the benefit of the complainant.
It is, however, insisted, that at-the time of this alleged settlement, the defendant gave to the complainant a note on Dennard for $180 00, and said that was “all he had in his hands of complainants”
The argument is, that this was a denial of the defendant, that he owed the complainant any thing on account of the trust property in his hands ; that it was a disavowal of the trust on his part, and was notice to her that he was claiming the trust property as his own, adverse to her title, and therefore, the Statute commenced running in his favor,' against hen, from that time. The reply is, that the settlement was made in relation to the lands mentioned in the deed; and when the defendant said that the $180 00 was all he had in his hands óf complainant’s, he must be understood to have spoken in reference to the subject matter of the settlement — that the $180 00 was all he had in his hands belonging to the complainant, on account of the lands which he had sold, and erased from the deed, on the back of which, the receipt was entered, and not that the $180 00 was all that he had in his hands of complainant’s, on account of the trust property. If the settlement had been made in reference to the trust property, and the defendant had openly avowed that the $180 00 was all he had in his hands of that property, it might have been such a denial of the trust- — such an adverse claim on hitt part to the trust
Let the judgment of the Court below be affirmed.