Cook ex rel. Cook v. Cook

559 S.W.2d 329, 1977 Tenn. App. LEXIS 305
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJune 6, 1977
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 559 S.W.2d 329 (Cook ex rel. Cook v. Cook) 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
Cook ex rel. Cook v. Cook, 559 S.W.2d 329, 1977 Tenn. App. LEXIS 305 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

MATHERNE, Judge.

In this lawsuit the nature and extent of an oral trust is to be declared. The trust is then to be impressed upon the proceeds of a life insurance policy on the life of the deceased settlor, to be administered by a trustee approved by the court.

I.

On a prior appeal this Court found that the proceeds of the insurance policy was impressed with an oral trust and remanded for a determination of the terms of the trust. On petition for certiorari the Supreme Court, in Cook v. Cook (Tenn.1975) 521 S.W.2d 808, generally agreed v/ith the conclusions reached by this Court and made the following statement on how the lawsuit would be handled on remand:

We remand this case to the Chancery Court in Union City, for further hearing under the following guidelines:
a. The entire record in this cause will be deemed and treated as a part of the record on remand, without the necessity for recalling any witness, rereading any deposition, or re-introducing any document.
b. Plaintiff will have the right to recall any witness for further examination.
c. Defendant will have the right to recall any witness for further cross-examination.
d. Either party will have the right to call any additional witness.
The Chancellor shall insure a full investigation into this controversy to the end that the precise nature and extent of the trust be developed and declared.
It being evident that there is hostility between Gayle Franklin Cook, the appointed (but not qualified) guardian, and Virginia L. Cook, mother and natural guardian, and it being further evident that there is a possibility of a conflict of interest on the part of Gayle Franklin Cook, this Court directs that the Court appoint a disinterested person to serve as guardian pendente lite or may cause the insurance proceeds to be paid into the Registry of the Court, to be managed and invested, pendente lite, under the direction and supervision of the Court. Upon the determination of the precise terms of the trust, the Court will appoint a permanent guardian, not handicapped by any conflict, hostility or incompatibility-
As modified and amplified, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.

Upon remand the chancellor ordered the defendant, Gayle Franklin Cook, the party to whom the proceeds of the life insurance policy had been paid, to pay the funds in to the clerk and master. The defendant did on July 23, 1975 pay in to the clerk and master the sum of $64,357.22 as the balance of the funds remaining in his hands.

After the hearing, the chancellor in his final decree appointed the clerk and master special guardian of the minor, James Perry [331]*331Cook. The chancellor did not find and declare the precise nature and extent of the oral trust as ordered by the Supreme Court. Instead, the chancellor set up a trust, as follows:

The Court further found said Special Guardian shall take possession of, hold and administer said trust fund, under the terms as set forth as follows and shall invest and reinvest the same for the benefit of said minor in such manner as authorized and approved for the investment of fiduciary funds by appropriate statute, and shall pay the net income, after deducting any expense and guardian’s fees allowed by the Court, to or for the benefit of said minor for his support, maintenance, welfare and education until such time as said minor ward shall attain the age of majority, at which time said guardianship shall terminate and the balance of said trust fund and all accumulated and unexpended revenues therefrom shall be paid over to said James Perry Cook pursuant to and in accordance with the proper orders of this Court made and entered at such time.
Upon proper application of the Guardian or other proper person charged with the care, custody and control of said minor during the continuation of said guardianship, encroachments upon the corpus of said trust funds may be allowed by proper orders of this Court for the support, maintenance, welfare and education of such minor, and provided further, that upon any such application for encroachment being made, the Court, in its sound discretion, may require notice of such application be given to defendant, Gayle Franklin Cook, in order to allow him to be heard on the issue of the advisability of allowing an encroachment upon the trust fund corpus.

The chancellor further found that the defendant as trustee had wrongfully spent $17,011.97 in payment of a debt of the settlor; he had failed to pay in to the clerk and master $433.75 of the trust funds; he had failed to properly invest trust funds with a resulting loss of $1,500.00 interest, all of which sums he ordered the defendant to pay to the clerk and master. The chancellor did allow the defendant trustee credit for a total of $3,251.33 paid out by the trustee.

The defendant trustee appeals.

II.

The plaintiff filed a motion to strike the bill of exceptions because it was not filed in accordance with T.C.A. §§ 27-110 and 27-111.

The bill of exceptions bore the certificate of the court reporter. It was not approved by the filing party, defendant. The bill of exceptions was left with the clerk and master within the time allowed for filing. The filing party left with the clerk and master a proposed order for the chancellor to sign showing that the bill of exceptions had been tendered and was approved by the chancellor. On the second page of the order was a certificate that the filing party had mailed a copy of the order to the opposing party. The chancellor, after the expiration of ten days, signed the order approving the bill of exceptions.

The plaintiffs argue that the copy of the proposed order for the chancellor to sign did not constitute notice, and the certificate did not meet the statutory requirement that the filing party certify that notice of filing had been given the opposing party. We do not agree with the plaintiff. The order, copy of which was received by the plaintiff, showed that the bill of exceptions had been tendered. This was notice to the plaintiff and she had ten days within which to object to any portion of the bill of exceptions. This form of notice is not a good one and should not be followed. The statute, however, does not prescribe the form of the notice nor of the certification of notice. We hold that the bill of exceptions was properly filed and the motion to strike the bill of exceptions is overruled.

III.

On August 19, 1975, a hearing was had before the chancellor on the nature and [332]*332extent of the oral trust. Proof was taken over a period of two days.

The defendant Gayle Franklin Cook testified that his brother, the settlor, stated to him that he was changing the beneficiary on his life insurance policy from his wife, Virginia Cook, to Gayle Franklin Cook. The defendant stated that his brother said that he did not want his wife to have any of the money from the insurance policy. He stated that the settlor told him to use the money to pay the settlor’s debts, to set the settlor’s step-son, William Baker, up in a farming operation, and to use the rest for the benefit of the settlor’s son, James Perry Cook.

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Bluebook (online)
559 S.W.2d 329, 1977 Tenn. App. LEXIS 305, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cook-ex-rel-cook-v-cook-tennctapp-1977.