Dahl v. Akin

645 S.W.2d 506, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5363
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 29, 1982
Docket9339 to 9341
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 645 S.W.2d 506 (Dahl v. Akin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dahl v. Akin, 645 S.W.2d 506, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5363 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinions

REYNOLDS, Chief Justice.

The litigants have perfected three separate appeals from individual judgments rendered in three suits filed in different district courts of Dallas County and consolidated for trial before a jury. The appeals, involving a number of interrelated subject matters, were submitted together, and this opinion sets forth the rationale upon which we have rendered a judgment in each cause.

Preliminary summaries of the background, factual setting, and litigation are appropriate to position the appeals. The details adscititious to the summaries and pertinent to each cause are included in the discussion of the appeal of that cause.

Background

Gloria Dahl Akin is the only child of George Leighton Dahl and his deceased wife, Lille E. Dahl. Mrs. Akin and her [509]*509husband, Justice Ted M. Akin, are the parents of four children, two of whom were minors when these causes were tried.

By her will, Mrs. Dahl, who died in 1957, created a testamentary trust — the Lille E. Dahl Trust. Vesting the residue of her estate in Mr. Dahl, who was appointed trustee, and his successors, in trust, Mrs. Dahl specified that

(b) If at any time during the life of my husband, GEORGE L. DAHL, his income from all other sources is insufficient to support and maintain him in the station of life to which he is accustomed, having in mind his income from all other sources, there shall be paid to my husband out of the net income and/or corpus of the Trust such amounts as are necessary to make up such deficiency, it being specifically understood, however, that my husband, GEORGE L. DAHL, shall in no manner participate in any decisions with reference to payments to himself out of the income and/or corpus of the Trust, but such decisions shall be made by my said daughter [Gloria Lille Dahl Akin], if living ...

Subject to this provision, Mrs. Dahl then provided that

the remaining net income of the Trust, in the discretion of the Trustee, may be paid to my daughter, GLORIA LILLE DAHL AKIN, and to any of my grandchildren in such amounts as the Trustee shall determine.

Any income not distributed to the beneficiaries is, by the terms of the trust, to be accumulated and become a part of the corpus of the trust.

Mrs. Dahl next granted two special powers of appointment with respect to the trust properties. Mr. Dahl was empowered to appoint, by his deed or other written instrument during his life or by his last will and testament, the trust properties or part thereof to and among Mrs. Akin, her husband, and her children and descendants, and the spouses of her children and descendants, in such proportion and upon such terms and conditions and upon such trusts as he shall determine. Subject to that special power of appointment, Mrs. Akin was granted the power to appoint the trust properties, by her will at her death, to and among her husband, and her children and descendants, and the spouses of her children and descendants, upon such terms and conditions and subject to such trusts as she may see fit.

Subject to the two special powers of appointment, the trust was to continue until its termination at the death of Mr. Dahl and Mrs. Akin. By the trust’s termination at that time, the assets vest in Mrs. Akins’ children, except for twenty percent of the assets which will vest in Justice Akin upon certain contingencies.

Mrs. Dahl declared that the trustee shall have a reasonable compensation, but not to exceed the fees charged by trust departments of banks in Dallas. She provided broad powers in the trustee over the trust properties, specifying that no trustee shall be liable for any mistake or error in judgment, but shall be liable only in case of bad faith or dishonesty.

The First National Bank in Dallas and Mrs. Akin are appointed successor co-trustees to Mr. Dahl. Mrs. Akin may remove the bank as co-trustee, but, in that event, she shall appoint as successor trustee a national bank having trust powers.

Factual Setting

When the trust came into being in 1961, its assets were approximately one-half million dollars. During Mr. Dahl’s tenure as trustee, he distributed to the Akins and their children trust funds amounting to more than $600,000, excluding distributions made and returned in the form of loans for the trust or to Mr. Dahl. At the time of the trial in 1980, the corpus of the trust was valued in excess of two million dollars.

Beginning in 1966, Mr. Dahl borrowed from Mrs. Akin various sums of money which had been distributed to her by the trust and evidenced by his indebtednesses by notes. In 1969, Mr. Dahl and the Akins executed an instrument “constituting] a mutual understanding and agreement” con[510]*510cerning recited money matters, which expresses that “the general principle or method of settlement agreed upon” includes a proviso that

Any balance of personal notes from George L. Dahl to Ted & Gloria Akin .. . would continue to be held by Gloria Akin as claims to be collected from the estate of George L. Dahl upon his demise. The personal notes of George L. Dahl are to be renewed annually, but shall not carry any interest ....

At the time of trial, the personal notes from Mr. Dahl were in the principal amounts of $274,702.26 to Mrs. Akin, $38,500 to Mrs. Akin as trustee for George D. Akin, and $38,500 to Mrs. Akin as trustee for Laurel S. Akin.

In 1970, the Akins guaranteed $160,000 of Teletronics Industries, Inc.’s $180,000 note held by First National Bank in Dallas. In 1971, Justice Akin executed a security agreement and delivered a certificate for 12,000 shares of Hargrove Electric Company, Inc. stock to the bank, together with a stock power form executed in blank, in connection with his securing the payment of an indebtedness unrelated to the Teletronics note. The indebtedness was paid, but the stock certificate was not retrieved.

When Teletronics defaulted on its note in 1972, the bank filed suit against the Akins. The trust then paid $107,781 to the bank to pay the balance due on the Teletronics note on behalf of the Akins. The bank assigned the Teletronics note and security agreement, together with the Akins’ guaranty, to the trust. At the same time, the bank delivered to the trust the security agreement executed by Justice Akin in 1971, the Hargrove stock certificate, and the executed stock power form in blank.

The $107,781 paid by the trust was not handled as a distribution of trust funds. Later it was written off as an uncollectible account, the trust taking a tax credit.

In 1975, the trust delivered three checks totaling $318,600 to the Akins, who used the money to pay off another guaranteed Tele-tronics note and other debts. The delivery was not handled as a distribution of trust funds because there would have been a substantial income tax liability to the Akins. Instead, there was completed a transaction — a “tax gimmick,” in the words of Mr. Dahl’s comptroller — whereby the Akins sold and conveyed a number of rental properties they owned, collectively referred to as the McKinney Street property, to the trust for $318,600, which generated a lesser capital gains tax to the Akins.

Afterwards, it was discovered that title to one of the tracts, more accurately described as the Richland Hills property, was in Hargrove Electric Company, Inc. On 28 May 1975, Mr.

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Dahl v. Akin
645 S.W.2d 506 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1982)

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Bluebook (online)
645 S.W.2d 506, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dahl-v-akin-texapp-1982.