Cavert v. Ferrell

255 P. 62, 123 Kan. 254, 1927 Kan. LEXIS 116
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedApril 9, 1927
DocketNo. 27,266
StatusPublished

This text of 255 P. 62 (Cavert v. Ferrell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cavert v. Ferrell, 255 P. 62, 123 Kan. 254, 1927 Kan. LEXIS 116 (kan 1927).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Mason, J.:

The plaintiff appeals from a judgment sustaining a demurrer of the defendant to his petition. The action is for an accounting and to compel the defendants, William Ferrell and Bertha Virginia Walker, as trustees, to give bond for the faithful performance of a trust.

The petition is a long one; for that reason its allegations must be [255]*255summarized, which under the circumstances is somewhat difficult. The material facts alleged in the petition are substantially as follows: Horace Oscar Cavert died intestate November 3, 1916, and left surviving him as his heirs his widow, Adda B. Cavert, and nis two sons, the plaintiff and H. 0. Cavert. At the time of his death, he owned thirty shares of stock in the Independence Mining and Transportation Company, which descended one-half to the widow and one-fourth to each of his sons. On November 14, 1916, “as a matter of convenience in handling the same and for no further consideration/’ the plaintiff and his brother, in writing, assigned and transferred their stock in the corporation to their mother, Adda B Cavert, who, after the assignment of the stock to her, caused the same, to be transferred to her on the books of the corporation. She afterwards purchased 137 more shares in the corporation. On September 11, 1917, Adda B. Cavert executed her will, in which, after making a number of specific bequests, she provided that—

“I also give, devise, and bequeath to my mother a one-third interest in and to all dividends and profits that may arise from shares of stock now held and owned by me in a certain corporation of the state of Kansas known as the Mining and Transportation Company, and which is now engaged at Independence, Kansas, in producing, transporting, and selling natural gas, to be used by her solely for the benefit of herself and my father, James William Ferrell, and it is my will and I direct that one-third of all dividends and profits that may arise from said shares of stock shall be paid by said corporation directly to my said mother; but, in the event of the death of my said mother before my own death, and preceding the,death of my father, the said one-third of all dividends and profits that may arise from said shares of stock in said corporation, as aforesaid, shall be paid jointly to my brother William Ferrell and my sister Bertha Virginia Walker, to be by them used solely for the benefit of our father, James William Ferrell, as long as he may live; but, in the event both of my parents shall die before I do, or, if they survive me, when both shall have died, 'then all of the above provisions as to the use of said one-third of all dividends and profits arising from said shares of stock shall be held null and void, and all of said shares of stock in said corporation belonging to me at my decease shall pass directly to and become the equal, absolute property of my said sons, share and share alike; subject, however, to this condition, viz.: that one-third of all dividends and profits that may arise from said shares of stock in said corporation, or so much thereof as may be necessary, shall be by my said sons devoted to and used solely for the education of Virginia Grace Fen-ell, daughter of my said brother, William Ferrell; the amount of money necessary for such use to be determined by the said William Ferrell, or in the event of his death, by Emma Vaden Ferrell, mother of said Virginia Grace Fen-ell, but the same shall not exceed $500 per year, and shall be paid annually between her eleventh and twenty-first years. . . .
[256]*256“All the rest and residue of my property and estate, real, personal, and mixed, wherever situate, I give, devise and bequeath to my said sons, William Curtis Cavert and Herbert Oscar Cavert, to be divided equally between, them, share and share alike.”

Adda B. Cavert died November 17,1918. Her mother died about two years thereafter. The plaintiff was named as executor of the will of Adda B. Cavert and qualified as such. The will was probated December 5, 1918. The plaintiff administered the estate and made final settlement thereof on April 6, 1921, when he and his bondsmen were discharged. The order approving final settlement declared that the plaintiff and his brother were the only heirs entitled to distribution in said estate. On February 17, 1919, George T. Guernsey, Sr., and others, including the plaintiff individually and as executor of the estate of Adda B. Cavert, and his brother H. 0. Cavert, organized a partnership under the name of the Independence Gas Transporting Company, which afterwards purchased all the property of the Independence Mining and Transportation Company.

One paragraph of the petition is as follows:

“That the Independence Gas Transporting Company did also at one time own Kasigan Gas Company stock and did prorate it among the partners according to their holdings in the partnership; so that the pro rata for 56 shares of partnership stock was 8 shares of Kasigan stock, 4 shares of which belonged to this plaintiff was sold about March, 1924, by the said George T. Guernsey, Sr., and George T. Guernsey, Jr., and contrary to the will and consent of this plaintiff, one-half of the proceeds was paid to Bertha Virginia Walker and one-, half to apply to the said notes of William Ferrell at the Commercial National Bank, all of which was wrongfully done and contrary to the terms of said will; that the said Kasigan stock sold for $150 a share, or a total of $600, that this sum of money was wrongfully converted by said defendants and taken away from said plaintiff contrary to law and equity, and so as to destroy the objects and ends of the trust created in said will. That the same was part of the capital in said company rather than dividends or profits thereof.”

The petition alleges that over the objection of the plaintiff payments of all of the dividends and profits arising from the 167 shares of stock in the Independence Mining arid Transportation Company and from the corresponding interest in the Independence Gas Transporting Company have been paid to William Ferrell and Bertha Virginia Walker, trustees under the will of Adda B. Cavert.

No bond has been given by them or either of them as such trustee. This action was commenced on December 28, 1925.

1. The plaintiff contends that under the allegations of the peti[257]*257tion, he is entitled to the proceeds arising from the seven and one-half shares of stock in the corporation and interest in the partnership, and that he should recover judgment against the defendants for the amount of those proceeds. The petition does not allege that the plaintiff at any time during his administration of the estate of Adda B. Cavert claimed in the probate court to have owned this seven and one-half shares of stock. It may be inferred from the allegations of the petition that during the administration of the estate the seven and one-half shares were included in the 167 shares standing in the name of Adda B. Cavert at the time of her death. The plaintiff transferred the seven and one-half shares of stock to his mother. It is true that the petition alleges “for convenience in handling the same.” It is not alleged that there was any understanding or agreement or any trust created concerning these shares of stock when they were transferred to Adda B. Cavert. She at once assumed control of them and afterward devised them by will as her property.

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Bluebook (online)
255 P. 62, 123 Kan. 254, 1927 Kan. LEXIS 116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cavert-v-ferrell-kan-1927.