Kellett v. Sumner

15 Haw. 76, 1903 Haw. LEXIS 20
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedJune 25, 1903
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 15 Haw. 76 (Kellett v. Sumner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kellett v. Sumner, 15 Haw. 76, 1903 Haw. LEXIS 20 (haw 1903).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

FREAR, C.J.

(Perry, J., dissenting.)

This is in form a bill for the discharge of a trustee and' the appointment of a successor in the trust, but the substantial issue is between certain of the defendants as to whether the trust.has terminated or not. The suit was begun by the Et. Eev. Gulstan E. Eopert, Bishop of Panopolis, as trustee under a deed executed by the defendant Sumner, but during the hearing, the Bishop being, as was supposed, on his dying bed, the Circuit Judge, with the consent of all parties and upon the agreement that the Bishop’s account, showing a balance of $48,025, was correct, made a decree, accepting the Bishop’s resignation and discharging him from the trust, and a further decree appointing P. D. Iiellett, Jr., in his place, and expressly authorizing the latter to go on with the suit as if he were the original plaintiff, though no formal amendment appears to have been made substituting him as-the party plaintiff. The Judge ordered also, with the consent of all the parties, that. [78]*78tbe amount above mentioned, which was then on deposit with the defendants, Bishop & Co., bankers, be paid into court, which was done. The defendant Sumner contended that the trust was terminated and that he Avas entitled to the $48,025, in which contention he was supported by his sister Maria S. Davis, Avho originally Avas a defendant but whose name was during the progress of the case stricken from the record, and her son, Wally Davis, aa-1io Avas a defendant to the original bill, but Ardióse name Avas omitted from the amended bill, and opposed by his nepheAvs, the defendants, the three Ellises, including Mrs. Buffandeau {nee Ellis). Besides the prayers in the bill for the acceptance of the trustee’s resignation, his discharge, the appointment of a successor and the payment of the money to such successor, there Avere prayers for other and further relief generally and “for such other and further disposition of the sum of $48,025 as to the court may seem just and equitable,” and John K. Sumner'in his ansAver prayed not only for the discharge of the trustee, but that the trust deed be cancelled and declared no longer in force, and that the sum in question be declared his absolute property and that it be ordered paid over to him. The Circuit Judge finally decreed that the deed be and Avas cancelled and annulled and the trust terminated, that the money be paid to Sumner, that the new trustee, Kellett, convey to him all property not already disposed of under the trust, and deliver to him all documents, &c., and thereupon be discharged as trustee.

The circumstances Avere, briefly, these: On February 7, 1895, Sumner made a lease, afterwards assigned to the Oahu Railway and Land Company, of certain land, bordering on Honolulu harbor, for 99 years at an annual rental of $5,500, at the same time giving in the lease an option to purchase the land at any time during the term of the lease for $100,000. A small portion of the land Avas reseiwed for 25 years. Sumner' Avas supposed to haA^e title to only one-lralf of the land, and his title to that Avas disputed by the government. On February 19, 3 895, Maria S. Davis filed a suit, as next friend of [79]*79Sumner, who was absent at bis borne in Tahiti, to set aside a power of attorney given by Sumner to one Crandall, and to have a receiver appointed to take charge of bis, Sumner’s, property in these islands, alleging that he, Sumner, was failing in mind and unable intelligently to transact business. The Circuit Judge granted the relief sought, but, upon the return of Sumner from Tahiti, the Supreme Court granted a writ of prohibition' to stay further proceedings in the receivership matter. Meanwhile, November 13, 1897, Mrs. Davis brought proceedings to. have Sumner put under guardianship as an insane person, which was done. Pending the appeal from the order of guardianship, Mrs. Davis brought another suit, as nest friend of Sumner, for the cancellation of certain conveyances made by Sumner after the discharge of the receiver. The conveyances were set aside as having been obtained without consideration and by fraud and undue influence. Also pending the appeal in the guardianship matter, Sumner executed the trust deed in question, on the understanding, as alleged in the answer of the Ellises (including Mrs. Buff an-dean) that the Supreme Court would thereupon with the consent of all enter a pro forma decree vacating the decree of the Circuit Judge declaring him, Sumner, non compos mentis, Sumner then being, as also alleged in said answer, “greatly harassed, annoyed and distressed by the several suits and proceedings hereinbefore referred to and being advanced in years and greatly broken by bodily infirmities and desiring to end his remaining years in peace and without strife and friction with those who were bound to him by ties of blood and to avoid the humiliation, mortification and anguish of having the said order declaring him to be an insane person affirmed by the Supreme Court.” Thereafter the Supreme Court entered a decree setting forth a written stipulation to the effect that the petitioner, Mrs. Davis, did not desire to press the proceedings further and that she consented that the decree appealed from be vacated and the matter discontinued, and decreeing accordingly, but rvithout prejudice to any one not a party thereto. Whether [80]*80the fact that the trust deed bad been executed by Stunner was-brought to the attention of the court does not appear. The court apparently vacated the decree below on the theory that the parties, particularly the petitioner, desired to discontinue and that was done without prejudice to others not parties. In July, 1902, the Oahu Railway and land Company decided to-exercise its option to purchase the leased property for $100,000, and brought suit to compel a conveyance after a demand for the same had been refused, whereupon, on September 4, 1902, Mrs. Davis again instituted proceedings to have a guardian appointed over Sumner as an insane person, and also, as next friend of Sumner, a suit to cancel the lease and option. On September 24, 1902, the Circuit Judge dismissed the last mentioned suit on the ground that Sumner was sane, and on October 13, 1902, the Circuit Judge, on motion of the petitioner, Mrs. Davis, dismissed the petition for the appointment of a guardian and decreed Sumner to be sane. On the same-day the Bishop, as trustee, and Sumner, Mrs. Davis, her son Wally, the two Ellises, Mrs. Buffandeau and her husband, executed a deed of the leased property, and also of the reserved portion, to the Oahu Railway and Land Company for $110,000, and on the next day the- railway company discontinued its suit for specific performance. Of this sum, $10,000 was divided among the attorneys of the various parties other than the-Bishop, without regard to whether they had served Sumner- or his foes, $10,000 was paid to the Bishop for the Roman Catholic Church, and $10,000 to each of the Ellises (including-Mrs. Buffandeau) and Mrs. Davis, and $1,000 to one Cathcart for certain alleged services, leaving the sum of $915 unaccounted for in the present case, and the balance now in dispute, $48,025, in -the hands of the Bishop, who a few days later, October 21, paid it over to Sumner, who in turn deposited it in the bank of the defendants Bishop and Company, by whom, as stated above, it was pa.id into court. At the same time the Bishop returned to Sumner a will which was referred to in the deed; and Sumner at once cancelled this and afterwards [81]*81burned it.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
15 Haw. 76, 1903 Haw. LEXIS 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kellett-v-sumner-haw-1903.