Newton v. Rebenack

90 Mo. App. 650, 1901 Mo. App. LEXIS 357
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 17, 1901
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 90 Mo. App. 650 (Newton v. Rebenack) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Newton v. Rebenack, 90 Mo. App. 650, 1901 Mo. App. LEXIS 357 (Mo. Ct. App. 1901).

Opinion

GOODE, J.

Beyond all question the trust declared by Neibelung was broken — nay more, it was demolished as far as Rebenack could demolish it. That is undeniable and is conceded.

The provisions of the deed were ignored by him in everything he did. They, indeed, allowed the trust property to be disposed of by the trustee whenever he might deem it advantageous ; but the proceeds were directed to be reinvested in income-bearing securities, either bonds, stocks or notes, secured by deeds of trust or mortgages. Instead of this, the proceeds were invested in real estate; which was a clear breach, even if done to conserve the trust instead of end it, as was the [656]*656purpose. Nothing could be-rightly paid the first beneficiary, Nellie N. Newton, except the net income after the taxes and other expenses had been discharged. Several years prior to Rebenack’s appointment she had reached het sixteenth year, and the clause directing payment of the annual income to her in person had taken effect. The purpose of Neibelung to conserve the capital was embossed on the face of the instrument, which provided that any surplus that might be left after defraying the expense of Nellie Newton’s education and maintenance to her sixteenth year, should be added to the principal and that the principal, with its accretions should go at her death, to her descendants if she left any, and if not, should revert to the donor or his heirs. All this was disregarded by the trustee. In less than a month after he received the funds, he had reduced the principal about five hundred dollars, and in little more than a month he entered into an agreement with the life tenant, totally destructive of the objects of the trust, the desire,of the donor and the rights of the remaindermen. In another two months, he still further diminished the principal by as much more.

An accounting was provided for in the deed, which Rebenack has failed to render for nine years. He has converted the trust fund to his own use by taking title to the real estate purchased with it, to himself. More flagrant breaches than the foregoing are scarcely imaginable. Their effect was to wreck the trust which Neibelung created, with the expectation that it would be a provision for the objects of his bounty through many years.

The questions that arise for determination, relate to the effect of the statute of uses in executing the trust, and vesting the entire estate, both legal and equitable, in the respondent, her standing in this suit to have the principal of the fund restored, and, if she is entitled to be heard at all for that purpose, tbe measure of relief which ought to be granted.

[657]*657Appellant’s position that the statute of uses vested the full title to and ownership of the fund in Nellie Newton, thus enabling her to dispose of it at her pleasure, will not bear a moment’s invéstigation. The trust created was an active and executory one; the trustee was charged with many duties to be performed for the benefit of both the life tenant and the remaindermen. In passive trusts, the rules of property often govern against the intention of the donor, if such intention is contrary to the law of property. In such instances, the statute of, uses operates on the trust to vest the complete estate, accompanied by the jus disponendi in the cestui que trust, so that the property is entirely subject to his control, and is accessible by his creditors by due process of law. But the statute of uses never affects those trusts where active duties are imposed on the trustee in regard to the collection of the income of the estate or its control, conservation or transfer; and this is especially true when remainders over are created. To hold that the statute of uses lays hold of and executes such a trust, would be to hold the legal estate was transferred, the instant the trust was declared, to the beneficiary first named, and remained in him or her to the exclusion of the trustee; in which event it would be impossible for the latter to perform the duties imposed on him or in any way handle the estate; which would, therefore, be placed beyond his control or influence, and also beyond the care of the courts of chancery. The proposition, though earnestly urged, is palpably erroneous. The trust before us is in 'all respects similar to others which were held to have remained unexecuted by,the statute of uses. Schoeneich v. Field, 73 Mo. App. 452; Pugh v. Hays, 113 Mo. 424; Jarboe v. Hey, 122 Mo. 341. A trust of this character can never be terminated except by its complete execution or the full consent, of all the parties in interest; and if some of the parties provided for are not yet in [658]*658being, it can neither be revoked nor terminated at all, but must be performed. Smith v. Smith, 70 Mo. App. 448; Ewing v. Shannahan, 113 Mo. 188; Ewing v. Warner, 47 Minn. 446. Undoubtedly then, the acts of Rebenack, even if authorized, or directed by Nellie Newton, were powerless to impair in any wáy the trust, however they might transmute or waste the estate or affect her rights as a concurring beneficiary. All the provisions of Neibelung’s deed are still in force for the benefit of every one therein named as a cestui que trust, except in so far as the status of the first principal may have been changed by her concurrence in the breaches; and it is the duty of an equity court to gather the fund and reinstate the trust on the terms declared by the donor.

This brings us to the question of the plaintiff’s standing in such a court and to what extent she may be embarrassed by her participation in the breaches committed by the trustee, or by the lapse of time during which she has either acquiesced in the misuse of the estate or sought no redress.

As to the proposition that a trustee may sometimes exceed the income arising from the capital, and, if there is a great urgency, may encroach on it, we answer that it is inapplicable to this case because of the remainders over for the use of the other cestuis que tmstent after the demise of the first one. In such instances, the capital can not be impaired to relieve the first beneficiary, who must be rigidly restricted to the usufruct. In re Potts, 1 Ashm. (Pa.) 340; Van Vechten v. Veghten, 8 Paige (N. Y.) 104. The rule allowing the principal to be encroached on ought to be most guardedly 'applied in every case, and such a departure from the terms prescribed by the donor only sanctioned from the most extreme necessity. Often the purpose of creating a trust is to place the property beyond the improvidence of a beneficiary, in the hands of one supposedly of more sagacity and firmness of character, who will see that it is neither dissipated by the [659]*659annuitant nor lent on inadequate security, but preserved intact, to yield an income through all vicissitudes to the one for whose future the donor felt anxiety. This was plainly the purpose here. Besides, as remaindermen were named, there can be no doubt the fund should have been kept according to the terms of the deed.

The statute of limitations was interposed as a defense to the suit. That statute runs against an action by a cestui que trust against a trustee for breaches when the trust is expressed as well as when it is constructive or implied; but does not begin to run in the ease of a pure or technical trust, until the trustee repudiates his fiduciary character by some open act; whereas, if the trust is implied, it commences to run as soon- as the right of action accrues to the cestui que trust. Keeton’s Heirs v. Keeton’s Adm’r, 20 Mo. 530; Smith v. Ricords, 52 Mo. 581; Philippi v. Philippi, 115 U. S.

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Bluebook (online)
90 Mo. App. 650, 1901 Mo. App. LEXIS 357, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/newton-v-rebenack-moctapp-1901.