Bank Trust Co. v. Yell and Robertson

15 Tenn. App. 306, 1932 Tenn. App. LEXIS 97
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMay 28, 1932
StatusPublished

This text of 15 Tenn. App. 306 (Bank Trust Co. v. Yell and Robertson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bank Trust Co. v. Yell and Robertson, 15 Tenn. App. 306, 1932 Tenn. App. LEXIS 97 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

DeWITT, J.

On May 28, 1924, Mrs. Ada Yell, widow of J. C. Yell, conveyed to her daughter, Jimmie Ruth Robertson, a farm of 170 acres, reciting as the consideration, “the love1 and affection I have for my daughter-Jimmie Ruth Robertson, wife of Ernest B. Robertson, of Tullahoma, Tennessee, and in an effort to equalize distribution of the family property, that is to say, in order that my said daughter Jimmie Ruth Robertson may receive family property.of approximate value with that heretofore given my two sons, Warren S. Yell and Dennie W. Yell.” This deed was registered on August 6, 1928.

On June 27, 1928, the receiver of the Wartraee Bank & Trust Company filed a bill against W. S. Yell and his mother, Mrs. Ada Yell to recover on a promissory note for balance of money loaned to W. S. Yell, and on which note Mrs. Ada Yell was surety. In that cause a decree was entered against both of said defendants for the sum of $2175, with interest from November 28, 1927, and attorney’s fees; and said judgment is unsatisfied. The receivership of thei'Wartraee Bank & Trust Company was terminated, its remaining assets were *308 delivered to its directors and stockholders for final liquidation, and suits for the collection of unpaid assets were authorized to be brought in the name of the Wartrace Bank & Trust Company.

On December 17, 1930, said Bank filed the bill in this cause against Mrs. Ada Yell and Jimmie Ruth Robertson to have the aforesaid deed set aside as fraudulent, null and void as against the complainant, to have a sale of said land, and to have the proceeds of said sale applied as far as necessary to the satisfaction of complainant’s debt.

The defendants in their answer, among other things, denied that at the time the indebtedness to the Bank was incurred Mrs. Ada Yell was the owner of said land; and they averred that said land had in reality been the property of the defendant Jimmie Ruth Robertson since the probate of the will of her father, J. C. Yell in the year 1909. They also averred that at the time of the execution of the deed Mrs. Ada Yell was solvent. They denied the averment of the bill that the officers and directors of the bank relied upon her ownership of this tract of land when they accepted her originally as endorser or surety on the note of her son. They averred that the conveyance of the land was made in good faith for the purpose set out in the will of J. C. Yell, and that it vested an absolute title in Jimmie Ruth Robertson.

Prior to the death of J. C. Yell in 1909 this land was owned by his wife Mrs. Ada Yell. In his will J. C. Yell gave to his son D. W. Yell a tract of 190 aeres of land and to his son Warren S. Yell another tract of 191 acres adjoining it. All the rest and residue of his property he devised and bequeathed to his wife Mrs. Ada Yell.

The fifth item of his will is as follows:

“My wife and I own jointly the place upon which we now live. Deed is made to us jointly, and in the event she survives me this home place will belong to her absolutely. In the event I survive her it is my will and wish and I so direct that this home place be sold by my Executor, publicly or privately, in parcels or as a whole, on such terms as he may deem best in the exercise of a wise discretion and the proceeds of the sale he will distribute as follows:- One-third to my son, Dennie W. Yell, one-third to my son Warren S. Yell, one-third to my daughter, Jimmie Yell.
“No further provision is made for my daughter Jimmie Yell because of a promise made by my wife that she will execute will devising to my said daughter, Jimmie Yell, during life, and after her death to such child or children as the said Jimmie Yell may leave surviving her, the one hundred and seventy (170) acre tract owned by my wife, lying and being in the 25th Civil District of Bedford County, Tennessee, familiarly known as the portion of the Nicholas Troxler place, directing that in the event of my daughter dying without child or children the said 170 acre tract of land shall become the property of my two sons, share and *309 share alike, if living, and if not, the child or children of the deceased son or sons to take such share as their father would have been entitled to if living.”

At the time of the death of the said testator his only daughter, the defendant Mrs. Jimmie Ruth Robertson, was unmarried. It is manifest that it was the plan and purpose of him and his wife that a farm should be devised by the testator to each of his tw'o sons, and that the provision for their daughter should be made by a devise by his widow of this tract of land to their daughter.

Mrs. Ada Yell took under said will, complied with the terms and provisions thereof, acquiescing in the devises to her two sons. She did not wait to devise the farm to her daughter but undertook to accelerate the performance of her agreement with her husband by the execution and delivery of the deed.

The Chancellor was of the opinion that the deed was executed in performance of a trust, established by the terms of the will and accepted by the widow as a trustee; that having acquiesced in and carried out the will of her husband she was in good conscience and equity bound to perform the agreement; and that neither the agreement nor any act of the parties precluded her from accelerating the performance. He therefore dismissed the bill.

For the complainant it is insisted that all of these conclusions are erroneous; especially that no trust was created by the terms of the will, and that Mrs. Ada Yell was not bound in good conscience and equity to execute the deed or otherwise perform the agreement to the detriment of complainant’s rights and interests.

. The theory that under an obligation to devise the said land to the daughter a trust was raised, and an equitable estate created, is the basis for the proposition that in the face of her duties Mrs. Yell could validly convey the land to her daughter. In support thereof the well settled rule is invoked that if a beneficiary under a will prevents the testator from making provisions in his will for another by promising that if it be done he would do something for the person thus intended to be provided for with which the testator is satisfied, equity will compel the performance of the promise or will declare a trust in favor of the person for whose benefit the promise was made. Drakeford v. Wilks, 3 Atkyns, 539; Richardson v. Adams, 10 Yerg., 273; McLellan v. McLean, 2 Head, 684; Nash v. Bremner, 84 N. J. Eq., 131, 92 Atl., 938. It is indeed a general rule that a testamentary gift on a parol promise by the donee to hold the estate in trust for the benefit, in whole or in part, for another, creates a valid trust. 26 R. C. L., 1241. Upon the same principle a trust could arise as to the property which the legatee or devisee promises to convey or devise to the third person in consideration of the benefits under the will. Upon these rules is based the conclusion that the conveyance undertaken, being merely *310 made to the equitable owner was not fraudulent as against the creditors of the conveyor. 27 C. J., 433, and cases cited. But such a conclusion would violate utterly the right, and paralyze the remedy, of a creditor claiming to be ignorant of the transactions disclosed and to have loaned money upon faith of the grantor’s ownership of the land.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Nash v. Bremner
92 A. 938 (New Jersey Court of Chancery, 1915)
Sandford v. Weeden
49 Tenn. 71 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1870)
Land Co. v. Hill
5 L.R.A. 45 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1889)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
15 Tenn. App. 306, 1932 Tenn. App. LEXIS 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bank-trust-co-v-yell-and-robertson-tennctapp-1932.