Brown v. Cherry

56 Barb. 635, 1868 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 197
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 6, 1868
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 56 Barb. 635 (Brown v. Cherry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. Cherry, 56 Barb. 635, 1868 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 197 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1868).

Opinion

Foster, J.

We must assume, for the purpose of deciding the questions before us, not only as the referee has found, that' the plaintiff received no consideration for the execution of the mortgage, but also that it was without consideration to Mrs. Stewart; for if that would give the plaintiff any more right to bring this action than if she did receive a consideration, it was the duty of the referee to find and declare how that fact was, instead of refusing to find it, on the ground that it was immaterial.

But upon .the supposition that the plaintiff was not a trustee of an express trust, was the fact of such want of consideration to her immaterial ?

Upon the proofs in the case, the plaintiff, although he supposed he was acting for the benefit of Mrs. Stewart, in executing the mortgage, executed it, in fact, without her knowledge or authority, and without consideration to her. He held the legal estate in the premises, and there was nothing in the conveyance to him whidh would give notice to any one that he held it only in trust; and there can be no doubt, I think, that a foreclosure against him by advertisement, pursuant to the statute, if the sale were regular and completed to a purchaser for value, without notice, would cut off the equity of Mrs. Stewart, although ’ no notice of the proceeding were served upon her. Great injustice would ensue, if parties were allowed to hold the beneficial interest in l^nd, under deeds to other persons, purporting to be in fee simple, against incumbrances placed upon it by the grantee, in favor of persons who had no notice of the secret trust, and equal injustice if, upon the statutory foreclosure of any mortgage executed by the secret trustee, in his own name, such trust could prevail against a purchaser at the mortgage sale, in good faith [639]*639and for a valuable consideration. And it is clear from the language of the statute, that upon the foreclosure in question no notice to Mrs. Stewart was necessary. (2 R. S. 778, § 3, subd. 4, 4th ed.)

Suppose, then, the plaintiff' had not commenced this action, to restrain the statutory foreclosure, and a sale of the premises, regular in form, had been made to a purchaser for valuable consideration and without notice; would not the plaintiff be liable to Mrs. Stewart for the loss she sustained by his wrongful mortgaging of the premises; and would it be any answer to such alleged liability that he honestly supposed he was acting for her when he executed it ? I think not, and that he had such a pecuniary interest in the question, for that reason, as authorized him to bring the action; and the referee erred in refusing to find that the mortgage was executed without the knowledge of Mrs. Stewart, and without consideration to her.

Again, was the referee right in holding that the plaintiff' was not the “trustee of an express trust?” It is claimed by the counsel for the defendant that the trust in question was a resulting trust, instead of an express trust; but, I think, without sufficient ground for such claim. A resulting trust hardly ever arises from acts which show that the trustee and the cestui que trust concur in the creation of it; and it is well illustrated by the case of a purchase by one, in his own name, of property, with the funds which he has in his hands, belonging to another, to be applied to some other purpose, or where he has such funds in his hands for the purchase of a particular piece of real estate, for and in the name of his principal, and he, in violation of his instructions, makes the purchase and takes the absolute legal title to himself. In such cases there is •a resulting trust in favor of the person whose funds have been used by the grantee. Such was not the case here. The principal knew that the deed was to be taken in the [640]*640name of Brown, though, she did not know what the form of the deed would be.

It is what, at common law, was an implied trust, and it is technically so still; and it must be conceded that it was not an express trust at common law. “Express trusts are those which are created in express terms in the deed, writing or will, while implied trusts are those which without being expressed are deducible from the nature of the transaction, as matters of intent; or which are superinduced upon the transaction, by operation of law, as matters of equity, independently' of the particular intention of the parties.” (Bouvier’s Law Dic., tit. Trust.)

Meither was it what is termed an express trust in the Revised Statutes. (1 Stat. at Large, 768, § 55, et seq.) Mor is it to my mind certain that it was so according to section 113 of the Code of Procedure, as originally enacted, which was perhaps intended to embrace such as were express trusts, at the common law, and by the several statutes, and was as follows: “ An executor or administrator, or trustee of an express trust, or a person expressly authorized by statute may sue without joining with him the person for whose benefit the action is prosecuted.” And yet upon the authority of Grinnell v. Schmidt, (infra,) decided in May, 1850, there would seem to be no doubt that it was.

In 1851, section 113 of the Code was amended, by adding at the end of it the following words : “ A trustee of an express trust, within the meaning of this section, shall be construed to include a person with whom or in whose name a contract is made for the benefit of another.” Mow the plaintiff not only held the legal title to the land in his own name, for the benefit of another, but the very mortgage in question was executed by him, in his own name, not for his own benefit, but for the benefit, as he supposed, of his cestui que trust.

And it seems to me that this case comes, not only within the spirit of the amendment of 1851, but within its letter. [641]*641“A factor or other mercantile agent, who contracts in. his own name, on behalf of his principal, is a trustee of an express trust, within the meaning of section 113 of the Code, and is the proper party to bring an action upon the contract.” (Grinnell v. Schmidt, 2 Sandf. 706.) And the court, at page 709, say: “Itxhas been generally supposed that the words, express trust, in this section, refer to trusts of land, authorized by the Revised Statutes, and which are, in the statutes themselves, termed express trusts, and to them alone. It is not necessary, however, to give to the words this restricted meaning. They are capable of a more extensive signification, so as to include all contracts in which one person acts in trust for, or in behalf of, another. Of this kind are contracts made by factors and other mercantile agents, who act in their own names, but for the benefit of, and without disclosing their principals.” And it would seem that the amendment of 1851 was intended to give the original section, in express terms, the same construction which had been given to it by the Superior Court.

In Rowland v. Phalin, (1 Bosw. 43,) it was decided that as to a contract made by a party of the first part, assuming to act in behalf of others not named, and to bind himself personally to accomplish certain results, beneficial to the parties of the second part, in consideration of their agreement to pay him, for the benefit of those for whom he acts, the party of the first part is “ á trustee of an express trust,” within the meaning of section 113, and may sue in his own name, without joining with him those for whose immediate benefit the action is prosecuted.

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Bluebook (online)
56 Barb. 635, 1868 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-cherry-nysupct-1868.