32 N.Y.S. 836 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1895
The defendants are husband and wife and the parents of the plaintiffs, who are minors and the only, children of the defendants. The husband and father had a contract of purchase of the real estate in question in 1881. His health becoming bad, and his tenure of life endangered, he decided not to take the conveyance to himself, but to have the prop
Common-law rules must govern the case, except as modified by the statute. If the one who actually pays the money causes the property to be conveyed to another for the benefit of or upon a trust, not for himself, but for a third person, the case specified in the statute does not arise at all. But. if we were to consider the payment as made by the children, they would not be bound by the absolute character of the conveyance, for it must be déemed as taken in that form without their consent or knowledge, they being infants; and the next section of the statute (§ 53) modifies the provision against
The principles governing this case are plainly perceived when it is brought to mind that the mother had assumed a trust relation toward the children, and that the solution and disposition of this case lies in that relation, and not in the relation between the father and the children. Having assented to the taking of a conveyance of the property for the children, the relation to them which she thns took upon herself required that she should not take and continue to hold an absolute conveyance to herself; and that she has done so, either intentionally or by mistake, does not baffle equity, but makes for it a plain case.
Nor does the Statute of Frauds stand in the way of the plaintiffs. It seems to be sufficient that it is not pleaded. Crane v. Powell, 139 N. Y. 379. But that statute only covers cases of contracts; and, moreover, it is provided therein that it shall not be construed “ to prevent any trust from arising or being extinguished by implication or operation of law.” . § 7. It does not edver the cases where equity has always implied a trust from the proved relation and acts of the parties, often accompanied by their oral declarations and agreements as to material facts, in order to prevent frauds. The trust in such cases, though proved by oral testimony, does not rest upon oral agreements, but upon the relation of the parties and their acts. Perry Trusts, §§ 134, 137; Foote v. Bryant, 47 N. Y. 550. This case cannot be distinguished in principle from the ordinary case of an agent purchasing land with funds-of his principal, or of one standing in a fiduciary relation using trust funds for the same purpose, and taking the title to himself (Perry Trusts, § 127; Day v. Roth, 18 N. Y. 448; Haack v. Weicken, 118 id. 74); while, for instance, it is di&
Judgment for plaintiffs.