Jones v. Swift

15 N.E.2d 274, 300 Mass. 177, 1938 Mass. LEXIS 932
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedApril 8, 1938
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 15 N.E.2d 274 (Jones v. Swift) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jones v. Swift, 15 N.E.2d 274, 300 Mass. 177, 1938 Mass. LEXIS 932 (Mass. 1938).

Opinion

Cox, J.

This is an appeal from a decree of the Probate Court which runs against the respondent Swift alone. The [178]*178petition, when filed, named as respondents Leila M. Johnson, individually and as executrix of the will of her husband Laurence H. H. Johnson, John G. Brackett, as trustee under a written declaration of trust for the benefit of the now respondent Swift and others, and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The respondent Swift, hereinafter referred to as Swift, was not then named as a party. This petition alleged in substance that, prior to and up to the time of his death, Laurence H. H. Johnson, hereinafter referred to as Johnson, held certain assets in trust for the petitioner, including twenty shares of the capital stock of the respondent telephone company; that Johnson commingled these shares with his own assets, converted and wrongfully pledged them as security for a personal loan; that the respondent executrix received these shares or shares into which they had been transmuted, as also did said Brackett, as trustee; and that the petitioner had never received them. Thereafter, motions were allowed, joining Swift and the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company as respondents, and dismissing the petition as to the telephone company and Brackett, as trustee, and also adding allegations to the effect that Swift, the donor of the trust of which Brackett was trustee, received said shares specifically or as transmuted and that they were in the possession of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company. The new prayers were that the added respondents be ordered to turn over said shares specifically or as transmuted and all dividends received. No decrees appear to have been entered following the allowance of these motions. All of the respondents appeared and filed answers, Swift alleging, among other things, that he was a bona fide purchaser of the stock referred to in the petition, without notice of any defect in its title.

The case was tried upon an agreed statement of facts which permitted the drawing of inferences and also upon oral and documentary evidence. The judge filed no findings of fact. The decree ordered Swift “to provide and transfer to the petitioner . . . twenty shares of the common stock of the American Telephone & Telegraph Com-[179]*179pony and that said respondent Walter Babcock Swift pay to said petitioner” $495.

"Although no statement of the findings of material facts was filed by the trial judge, the entry of the decree imports the finding of every fact essential to the right entry of that decree permitted by the evidence. It is for this court in a proceeding of this nature (see Drew v. Drew, 250 Mass. 41, 43) to review the evidence and decide the case on its own judgment as to facts as well as law. But under the familiar rule, where, as in the case at bar, conflicting oral testimony has been heard, the finding of the trial judge as to facts either expressly made or necessarily implied from his disposition of the case, will not be reversed unless plainly wrong. Glazier v. Everett, 224 Mass. 184. Star Brewing Co. v. Flynn, 237 Mass. 213, 216.” Durfee v. Durfee, 293 Mass. 472, 477. See Malden Trust Co. v. Brooks, 291 Mass. 273, 279; Bratt v. Cox, 290 Mass. 553, 557.

Johnson was trustee under a written “Trust Deed” executed by Swift in 1907. Among the trust assets were five hundred shares of the common stock of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the certificates representing which stood in Johnson’s individual name. This number of shares was reduced to four hundred, "pursuant to the terms of said trust.” On April 8, 1932, Johnson sold sixty of these shares without reporting the sale to Swift, who knew nothing of it until after Johnson’s death. It is not known what disposition was actually made of the proceeds of this sale. Johnson never purchased any shares of telephone stock to replace the shares that were so sold or any part of them. He always paid amounts to Swift which were the equivalent of all dividends declared on the number of shares for which he was properly accountable as trustee. For convenience, shares of stock of the telephone company are hereinafter referred to as telephone stock.

Prior to April 27, 1932, the New England Trust Company, hereinafter described as the trust company, held two notes, both of which were signed by Johnson individually, one representing a loan of $25,000 which was “for the sole benefit of the Swift Trust,” and one for $40,000 which was [180]*180for a personal loan. There is no provision of the trust that authorizes the trustee to borrow money. As a part of the collateral for these loans, the trust company, prior to April 27, 1932, held one hundred fifty shares of telephone stock. On that day, Johnson deposited with the trust company two hundred seventy additional shares of telephone stock as a part of the collateral for these two loans. Later the trust company released fifty of the four hundred twenty shares. Included among these two hundred seventy shares were twenty shares, the two certificates representing which stood in Johnson’s name individually, although these twenty shares equitably belonged to the petitioner; and also ten shares which Johnson held as trustee under still another trust, the certificate for which, however, stood in his name individually. Johnson had acted as a trustee “in fact” for the petitioner since 1911, at least, when he purchased twenty shares of telephone stock for her account with money supplied by her. The certificates representing these twenty shares are traced, from the date of their purchase, into the hands of Swift, when they were transferred to him as hereinafter appears. The petitioner had no knowledge that these twenty shares were so pledged by Johnson until sometime before this petition was brought. Up to the time of Johnson’s death, he always accounted to the petitioner for the dividends declared-on these twenty shares and reported annually to her that he held them in trust for her. On October 5, 1931, he executed an instrument purporting to transfer to the petitioner these twenty shares, and this instrument, together with other securities belonging to her, was found in his safety deposit box after his death, which occurred on June 24, 1934. She has never received these twenty shares or their equivalent.

The officials of the trust company never knew that the $25,000 loan was obtained by Johnson “as trustee for the Swift Trust,” but always regarded it as his personal loan; and Swift never knew, prior to Johnson’s death, that this loan had not been obtained by Johnson in his name as [181]*181trustee, or that the stock so pledged as part of the collateral for said loan had not been issued in his name as trustee under the trust indenture; “but except as set forth above the loan was made with the knowledge and consent of said Swift.”

After Johnson’s death, Brackett, the new trustee under the Swift trust, and the respondent Johnson discovered that there were only three hundred seventy instead of four hundred shares of telephone stock pledged as collateral at the trust company, it being assumed by them that the three hundred seventy shares belonged to the Swift trust. The new trustee was unwilling to execute a note for the $25,000 loan, taking the position that he had no authority to do so.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Jensen v. Daniels
57 Mass. App. Ct. 811 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 2003)
Cox v. Cox
780 N.E.2d 951 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 2002)
Keller v. O'Brien
683 N.E.2d 1026 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1997)
Gagnon v. Coombs
654 N.E.2d 54 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1995)
Abbott v. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance
468 N.E.2d 632 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1984)
Cowden v. American Express Co.
43 Mass. App. Dec. 186 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1969)
Newhall v. Second Church & Society of Boston
209 N.E.2d 296 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1965)
Tesny v. Zubrowski
10 Mass. App. Dec. 124 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 1955)
National Shawmut Bank v. Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance
61 N.E.2d 18 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1945)
Turner v. Morson
57 N.E.2d 18 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1944)
Milbank v. J. C. Littlefield, Inc.
36 N.E.2d 833 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1941)
Tierney v. Coolidge
32 N.E.2d 198 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1941)
Banks v. Everett National Bank
25 N.E.2d 177 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1940)
Berry v. Kyes
22 N.E.2d 622 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1939)
White Tower Management Corp. v. Taglino
19 N.E.2d 700 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1939)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
15 N.E.2d 274, 300 Mass. 177, 1938 Mass. LEXIS 932, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-swift-mass-1938.