Downs v. Security Trust Co.

194 S.W. 1041, 175 Ky. 789, 1917 Ky. LEXIS 387
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMay 25, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 194 S.W. 1041 (Downs v. Security Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Downs v. Security Trust Co., 194 S.W. 1041, 175 Ky. 789, 1917 Ky. LEXIS 387 (Ky. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

[790]*790Opinion op the Court by

Judge Sampson

Affirming.

This action was instituted in the Payette circuit court by Walter W. Downs, on August 24, 1915, against the Security Trust Company, of Lexington, Kentucky, seeking to cancel a deed and revoke a trust created thereby. Downs is a young man about twenty-eight years of age, and unmarried. His father and mother are both dead. ITe has one married sister living in Payette county. ^ He has never been engaged in any business, calling or occupation, except that after his father’s death, he came into the possession of a tract of land of one hundred, fifty-four acres, the basis of this action, which he rented to tenants, and collected the rents. Por some years before the execution of the deed, on December 2, 1910, Downs was addicted to the excessive use of intoxicating liquors to such an extent as to be unable to attend to his business, or to manage his affairs. On one or more occasions it was necessary to confine him in a sanitarium for treatment of the disease commonly called alcoholism. He was also, at that time indebted to numerous persons to the amount of three thousand dollars, or more, and some of these creditors were very insistent and were about to commence legal proceedings. He was unable to raise money with which to satisfy these creditors, and being in a sanitarium under treatment of Dr. Holliday for troubles arising from a protracted drunk, he made application, through his physician, to the Security Trust Company, of Lexington, for permission to make said institution his trustee for the holding, management and control of his estate, which consisted chiefly of this farm. After several conferences, matters were arranged, and the deed, now sought to be cancelled, was executed by Downs to the Security Company in trust for the uses named therein. He was the sole beneficiary. The company accepted tho trust, and immediately began, and have since continued, to exercise the duties thereof, and to carry out the objects for which it was created. The Trust Company advanced sufficient money to pay off the indebtedness of young Downs, and leased or let the lands so as to" produce an income from the farm. It took in charge all his affairs in accordance with the terms of the deed, and after two years sold the land at the price of one hundred, seventy dollars per acre, which was, to say the least, a very advantageouse trade, because land owners living in and near this property testify that its value [791]*791was approximately one hundred, twenty-five dollars, to one hundred, forty dollars, per acre. This sale realized for the trustee something more than twenty-five thousand dollars, and up to the taking of proof in this case the trustee had collected rents and profits from the farm, and interest from the money invested after the sale, which added to the sale price brought the grand’ total up to $34,362.30. After paying the debts of Downs, contracted previous to the execution of the deed, as well as those subsequent, and advancing him such necessary sums as his living expenses required, there remained something more than twenty-one thousand dollars at the time of the commencement of this action, which the Trust Company had judiciously invested in earning securities. Downs took up his abode first with one of his cousins in the country, and later moved into the city of Lexington and boarded. He did not follow any occupation, or pretend to earn a livelihood. Very frequently he drank to excess, and it was necessary for him to have medical attention at a sanitarium on account thereof. All these expenses were duly paid by the trustee from funds in its hands.

Becoming tired of the arrangement which he had voluntarily entered into, Downs instituted this action to revoke the trust and to cancel the deed of’ December 2, 1910, creating the trust, because, as he alleges, the purposes of the trust have been accomplished; his debts paid, and his health recovered to such an extent as that he is able to manage and control his affairs, and this being true, he avers there is no longer any necessity for the relationship.

The Trust Company answered admitting the execution of the deed and the existence of the trust, but denied that Downs has been restored to health, as alleged in his petition, and averred that he was yet given over to excessive indulgence in the use of intoxicating liquors, and as a consequence thereof, habitually in such condition as to incapacitate him for the business of properly attending to or managing his estate. The answer also alleged that the estate would be endangered by the revocation of the trust, and the trustee submitting the whole matter to the circuit court, offered to resign the trust and to settle its accounts, but recommended that the trust be continued until the trustor, by sober conduct, had shown himself capable of managing his estate.

[792]*792By reply issue was joined. Thereupon voluminous depositions were taken. The plaintiff, Downs, in his testimony, admitted the execution of the deed and its regularity, but insisted that he had recovered his health, which was but another way of saying that he was no longer an inebriate; that his debts had been paid, and that he was fully competent to manage his affairs. He also said that he wished to revoke the trust in toto, because the objects for which it was originally created had ceased to exist, and that he desired now to go into business on his own account. He admitted, however, that he had never engaged in any business except to rent his farm and collect the rents, and this he also admitted he squandered. He also testified that he had worked as a clerk in á country store for about one month at one time, and for about a week at another time, and this appears to have been his only employment covering a period of some years, except that he declared he helped on the farm, but in what way or to what extent is not made clear. He called other witnesses to prove in substance the same facts, and one or more of these witnesses stated that in their judgment Downs was capable of managing his business.

The evidence for the trustee was quite to the contrary. It called several physicians, including those that had control of and managed the sanitarium in which Downs had been confined during his sickness, resulting from insobriety. One of these physicians stated that the trouble was alcoholism and that it was a disease; that on one or more occasions Downs suffered from delirium tremens and was wild.' On the first visit to the sanitarium Downs’ condition was such that he soon rallied from the attack and he was discharged. Upon the second visit, the trouble was more serious and it took a longer time to relieve the patient, and upon the third visit Downs was in a precarious eonditi’on, verging on mental collapse, from which it took a much greater time to relieve him. The doctor testified that he advised Downs at the time of his release from the sanitarium that a continuance of his former conduct would bring on chronic dementia, and warned him not to again indulge in strong drink. This last attack was after the commencement of this action, and at a time when he was seeking to have the trust revoked, because he had regained his health and was able to control and manage his estate. The three physicians, who attended him, further testified that Downs’ lack of willpower and weakness of character, rendered him an easy [793]*793prey to strong drink, and that more than likely, if temptations offered, he would return to his old habits.

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Bluebook (online)
194 S.W. 1041, 175 Ky. 789, 1917 Ky. LEXIS 387, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/downs-v-security-trust-co-kyctapp-1917.