Leraan v. Aftenro Society

30 N.W.2d 694, 225 Minn. 229, 1 A.L.R. 2d 1048, 1948 Minn. LEXIS 515
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJanuary 9, 1948
DocketNo. 34,422
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 30 N.W.2d 694 (Leraan v. Aftenro Society) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Leraan v. Aftenro Society, 30 N.W.2d 694, 225 Minn. 229, 1 A.L.R. 2d 1048, 1948 Minn. LEXIS 515 (Mich. 1948).

Opinion

Peterson, Justice.

The trustees of the trust created under the will of Bert J. Enger, deceased, appeal from an order vacating, to the extent necessary to permit the beneficiaries to litigate against the trustees’ claims based on their self-dealing with assets of the trust free from any defense that the vacated orders preclude the assertion of the claims, five prior orders of the court, viz., two orders authorizing the sale of securities, two orders allowing annual accounts, and an order authorizing the trustees to consent to the sale of its physical properties by a corporation in which they held stock as such.

[231]*231The appeal raises the following questions: (1) Whether an order vacating prior orders (a) allowing a trustee’s annual account, (b) authorizing a trustee to sell securities, and (c) authorizing a trustee to consent as such to the sale by a corporation in which he holds stock of its physical properties is appealable; (2) whether the court may vacate orders authorizing a trustee to sell assets or to give a consent as trustee, where the trustee is guilty of self-dealing in connection with the transactions involved and conceals that fact; (3) whether, where there is nothing in a trustee’s annual account or the proceedings for its allowance to apprise the beneficiaries of the fact that the trustee was guilty of self-dealing or to tender any issue with respect to that question, the order allowing the trustee’s annual account is res judicata, so as to preclude the subsequent assertion of a claim against the trustee based on self-dealing; and (4) whether, under the circumstances stated in the preceding query, the vacation of an order allowing a trustee’s annual account for the purpose of enabling the beneficiaries to assert against the trustee rights arising out of his self-dealing causes legal prejudice to the trustee.

These questions arise in connection with the final accounting. In proceedings under M. S. A. 501.33, the district court confirmed the appointment of the trustees and acquired jurisdiction of the trust as a proceeding in rem. The trustees having filed their final account and noticed it for hearing, the beneficiaries filed objections thereto charging the trustees with self-dealing, waste, and failure to account for trust funds, and sought to hold them liable by reason thereof. To the objections, the trustees filed an answer. So far as concerns any liability for alleged self-dealing, the trustees contended that the vacated orders were res judicata of all matters in controversy and precluded the beneficiaries from litigating their claims. Thereupon the beneficiaries moved to vacate the orders to the extent necessary to enable them to litigate, free from any bar arising by reason of res judicata or otherwise, the questions of self-dealing and resulting liability by reason thereof. On the motion to vacate, the court heard oral testimony and other evidence, from [232]*232■which it determined that the trustees had been guilty of such self-dealing as to require vacation of the orders in question to enable the beneficiaries to litigate free from any bar on account of the orders the questions concerning self-dealing by the trustees and liability on their part arising by reason thereof.

Because of the generality of the claims and the defenses thereto set forth in the objections and the answer thereto, we are not sure whether we understand precisely what relief the objectors seek or what defenses the trustees interpose to the claims asserted against them. These may properly be left for determination in the course of the trial upon the merits. For present purposes, enough appears to show that the objectors claim that the trustees were guilty of self-dealing in connection with four separate transactions and of waste and failure to account for trust funds. No point has been made here with respect to the claims for waste and failure to account, and for that reason those matters need not be further considered.

The four transactions with respect to which objectors contend the trustees are liable by reason of self-dealing and the grounds of such liability may be briefly stated as follows:

(1) That in the sale, pursuant to court order of December 16, 1936, of 1,279 shares of common stock of Enger & Olson, Inc., trustee Leraan was personally interested as a purchaser and that the stock was sold at much less than its real value, with resulting loss to the trust of $69,500 according to one valuation and $44,765 according to another; (2) that the trustees by an ex parte order of February 27, 1940, were authorized to consent as trustees to the sale by Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Company of Delaware, herein referred to as Old Marine, to a corporation having the same name, organized under the laws of Minnesota, herein referred to as New Marine, of Old Marine’s physical properties in exchange for one-third of the common stock of New Marine, which authorization trustee Leraan, who then was president and a director of Old Marine by reason of the trustees’ ownership of stock therein, used in connection with others to promote and organize New Marine, part of the plan for which [233]*233provided that Leraan should receive one-sixth of its common stock and the right to purchase additional stock amounting to $1,000, which it was arranged should be paid for out of New Marine’s earnings; and that, although New Marine’s earnings were sufficient to declare dividends, which if distributed would have enabled Old Marine with the dividends which it would have received from New Marine to make its common stock worth its par value and to provide for the retirement of its preferential preferred stock and ordinary preferred stock, Leraan and his associates by means of excessive salaries, bonuses, diversion of both corporate profits and corporate funds, appropriated to their own use such large amounts of New Marine’s earnings that Old Marine was thereby prevented from receiving dividends on its stock therein in the amounts to which it was entitled, and that thereby the trustees caused loss to the beneficiaries by depreciating the sale value of stocks held by the trustees in Old Marine; (3) that the trustees sold 79 1/3 shares of preferential preferred stock of Old Marine to nominees of trustee Leraan for his benefit and 88 1/3 shares of ordinary preferred stock of the same corporation for $1 a share, which would have been worth at least $270 a share if the dividends to which Old Marine was entitled from New Marine had been declared and paid; that thereby the beneficiaries sustained a loss of $12,104.31; that, in addition, Old Marine’s common stock, which if it had received the dividends in question would have been worth at least its par value of $1,500, was charged off by the trustees as worthless, and that they should be surcharged by reason thereof for an additional $1,500; and (1) that the trustees, pursuant to court order of December 27, 1915, sold to Eoy H. Olson 108 shares of preferred stock of Enger & Olson, Inc. and 64 shares of stock of Duluth National Bank for $37,000, which was $10,200 less than its real value; and that trustee Leraan was personally interested in the sale as a purchaser.

It appears (1) that the order of December 16, 1936, authorizing the sale of the 1,279 shares of common stock of Enger & Olson, Inc. was granted after notice and hearing and that the beneficiaries at [234]

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30 N.W.2d 694, 225 Minn. 229, 1 A.L.R. 2d 1048, 1948 Minn. LEXIS 515, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leraan-v-aftenro-society-minn-1948.