179 Iowa 785 | Iowa | 1917
To invest in trade or speculation would be a breach of duty on the part of the guardian. Tucker v. State, 72 Ind. 242; King v. Talbot, 40 N. Y. 76; Martin v. Raborn, 42 Ala. 648. But it is well established that a guardian may not keep idle the money or property of his wards, but is bound to all reasonable diligence in keeping the money loaned out on good security under the orders of the court, and in procuring ordinary returns from other property; and, if he refuses or neglects to invest the money in loans such as may be approved by the court, the genera] rule is that he will be charged a reasonable rate of interest for the use of the money
“First. A trustee is accountable for all interest or profits actually received by him from the trust fund, whether used in his private business or otherwise employed by him. Under no circumstances will he be permitted to retain any benefit or advantage from the trust fund, except his compensation or commissions. Second. He is, at all events, accountable for such interest or profits as he might have obtained by the exercise of reasonable skill and exertion in the management of the fund, whenever the character of his trust or the relation which he holds to the fund, requires him to make it productive. In all such cases he is, at least, accountable for such gains and profits, although the actual gains and profits may be less.”
See Woerner on Guardianship, Section 64, where thea authorities are gathered and reviewed. That the guardian may have made use of the funds of his wards in his private business, did not constitute the transaction a loan. Such a course would have been a delinquency on his part, often .denounced as gross and wilful violation of his duty. It would have been a conversion of the property to his own use, and is never approved by the courts. The title to the property continued in the wards, in the sense that, had he appropriated it, it might have been traced.by them in a proper action, and the property, as well as the profits derived therefrom, recovered. The funds never became the property of the decedent, as between him and his wards, but continued that of his wards, and the,court rightly ordered the payment of the several sums owing these wards from the estate of decedent.