Trusteeship

“ A trustee shall derive no personal benefit from the trusteeship. The office cannot be renounced or delegated, because it is one of personal confidence. It can, however, be resigned, and recent legislation, as has been already stated, has given a retiring trustee large powers of appointing a successor. In the case of the death of a single or last surviving trustee of real estate, the trust estate by the Conveyancing Act, 1881, now devolves upon his personal representative instead of upon his heir or devisee. ”

“ His trusteeship is dependent on his coming to this country and assuming the duties of guardian to the heir, and provision is made accordingly. The third trustee and guardian is Mr Frank Armstrong, who is entitled to act so long as he holds his present post of tutor to the heir, which post he will retain only during Mrs Ingleton’s pleasure. ”

“ It may be that the surviving trustee, under the broad powers of sale given by the will, could, in his discretion, have sold this property, if he had not surrendered his position as trustee, and if the title had not, by the decree of the court, been taken out of him. And it may be that it was competent for him, while holding the trusteeship, to transfer to some one else, by a written instrument, the powers the will gave him, but he had not exercised any such powers prior to the decree of March 29, 1882, divesting him of title, and substituting Green in his place as trustee. ”

“ Changes of apparent ownership have been entered in the civil records; but these in their turn will be changed. The procession of trustees moves down through the millenniums; above the trusteeships is one changeless Owner. ”

“ Public Trustee.—A step further was taken by the Public Trustee Act 1906, which established the office of public trustee. By the act he is a corporation sole, with perpetual succession and an official seal and may sue and be sued under his official title. He may, if he thinks fit, act in the administration of estates of small value; as custodian trustee, or as an ordinary trustee; he may be appointed a judicial trustee, or administrator of a convict’s property. The law of trusts generally is applicable to him and he can act either alone or jointly with other persons. ”

“ This was one of the incidental trusts or duties devolved upon them by the testatrix, as trustees of the estate, upon whom she had conferred such large powers over it, and which, on the death of Guild, survived with the other trusts to the co-trustee. No well-grounded distinction can be made between these trusts. If the power survives as to one of them it survives as to all, as it is apparent on the face of the will that the trustees were to act in the same capacity in the execution of all of them. ”

“ On such appointment the number of trustees may be increased. Existing trustees may by deed consent to the discharge of a trustee wishing to retire. Trust property may be vested in new or continuing trustees by a simple declaration to that effect. By the Conveyancing Act, 1882, a separate set of trustees may be appointed for any part of the property held on distinct trusts. Trusts created by operation of law are either those which are the effect of the application of rules of equity or those which have been constituted by a judicial authority. ”

“ When an agent contracts in the name of his principal, the principal contracts, and is bound, but the agent is not. When a trustee contracts as such, unless he is bound, no one is bound, for he has no principal. The trust estate cannot promise; the contract is therefore the personal undertaking of the trustee. As a trustee holds the estate, although only with the power and for the purpose of managing it, he is personally bound by the contracts he makes as trustee, even when designating himself as such.'↑ Roger Williams Nat. ”

“ A trust, therefore, will survive when in no way beneficial to the trustee.
We have said the trustees were invested with the legal estate for the purpose of enabling them to perform the various trusts devolved, such as managing the estate, investing and reinvesting the funds belonging to it, paying over the income to the children during their lives, converting the real estate into personal, and, among others, the selection and appointment of the committee of gentlemen who were to designate the donees of the charity. ”

“ And property thus held, acquired from him by third parties with knowledge of his trust and his disregard of its obligations, can be followed and recovered. The law exacts the most perfect good faith from all parties dealing with a trustee respecting trust property. Whoever takes it for an object other than the general purposes of the trust, or such as may reasonably be supposed to be within its scope, must look to the authority of the trustee, or he will act at his peril. ”

“ They are, undoubtedly, said in many authorities to be trustees, but that, as I apprehend, is only in a general sense, as we term an agent or any other bailee intrusted with the care and management of the property of another. It is certain that they are not technical trustees. They can only be regarded as mandataries, persons who have gratuitously undertaken to perform certain duties, and who are therefore bound to apply ordinary skill and diligence, but no more. * * * We are dealing now with their responsibility to stockholders, not to outside parties,-creditors and depositors. ”

“ The special act merely relieves the trustee from the judgment of law consequent upon their purchase. It leaves all incidental questions open, to be dealt with according to general principles.
And the trustees stand in an inauspicious relation to the property; they are vendors of the estate of others, and they are purchasers for themselves; a court of equity will, therefor, examine their acts with jealous caution, and in dubious matters it can allow them the benefit of no favorable presumption. ”

“ Any owner of property, whether he be resident in the Colony or not, wishing to create a trust, may use the Public Trustee, subject, of course, to that officer's consent. Any one who desires so to do may appoint him the executor of his will. Any one about to leave, or who has left the Colony, may make him his attorney. The Public Trustee may step in and take charge, not only of intestate estates, but of an inheritance where no executor has been named under the will, or where those named will not act. He manages and protects the property of lunatics. ”

“ It has been shown, that the charter is a contract on the part of the government, that the property with which the charity is endowed, shall be for ever vested in a certain number of persons, and their successors, to subserve the particular purposes designated by the founder, and to be managed in a particular way. If a law increases or diminishes the number of the trustees, they are not the persons which the grantor agreed should be the managers of the fund. ”

“ Paragraph 23 A trustee is a person who has agreed to hold or manage property for someone else's benefit, and anything to do with trusts is within the equity court's jurisdiction. The idea of a corporation is that its directors are trustees for its stockholders, managing the money they paid for their shares for their benefit, so any litigation over corporate affairs is a chancery case. ”

“ A trustee is, as we have seen, a person in whom the property of another is nominally vested, to the intent that he may represent that other in the management and protection of it. A trustee, therefore, is for many purposes two persons in the eye of the law. In right of his beneficiary he is one person, and in his own right he is another. In the one capacity he may owe money to himself in the other. In the one capacity he may own an encumbrance over property which belongs to himself in the other. ”

“ In such cases, as in cases where a natural person or a private corporation is the trustee, and the person has died or the corporation has been dissolved, the court will appoint a new trustee, or execute the trust by its own officers or agents. ”

“ If either is to act at all as trustee, each must pursue his or her independent way, with a certainty of differing as to the proper performance of many of the duties of the trust, if not as to all.' 'This unfortunate state of feeling between the trustee and sisters and brother must equally prevent that peaceable intercourse that beneficiaries should enjoy with the party charged with the management of their interests in this considerable estate. ”

“ They have different names, and different powers, rights and duties; their organization is wholly different; the powers of the corporation are not vested in the same or similar hands. In one, the trustees are twelve, and no more; in the other, they are twenty-one. In one, the power is a single board; in the other, it is divided between two boards. Although the act professes to include the old trustees in the new corporation, yet that was without their assent, and against their remonstrance; and no person can be compelled to be a member of such a corporation against his will. ”

“ It is not necessary to express any opinion as to the authority of a trustee to release property conveyed to him at any time, where no such restriction, as in the present case, is in terms placed upon his power. We confine our language to the precise point before us. Here there was no authority on the part of the trustee to execute the deed until payment of the notes was made. ”

“ The Public Trustee may be appointed a trustee, an executor, an agent, an attorney, or an administrator of an estate, and he is entitled to act as administrator on his own initiation in cases where persons have died intestate. The good faith of the administration of the department is guaranteed by statute, and the colony is pledged to maintain the integrity of funds obtained from estates and invested by the office. ”

“ An administrator who purchases land under a judgment in favor of the intestate, holds it as a trustee. It must be intended that an administrator so purchasing, does so at the request and for the benefit of the heirs. He is a trustee for the heirs, and cannot divest himself of the trust. ”

“ The business of the said corporation shall and may be transacted and performed by the majority of a meeting of at least eleven of the trustees appointed by this act, and their successors duly elected, notified, called and convened as aforesaid, and not otherwise. If any trustee shall accept or take any charge or office under the said trustees, other than that of treasurer of secretary, his place shall thereby be vacated, and the trustees at their next meeting shall proceed to supply such vacancy by election. ”

“ Does a similar relationship exist between a trustee and the intangibles of a trust?
The trustee of today moves freely from state to state. The settlor's residence may be one state, the seat of a trust another state and the trustee or trustees may live in still another jurisdiction or may constantly change their residence. [16] The official life of a trustee is, of course, different from his personal. A trust, this Court has said, is 'an abstraction.' In federal income tax purposes it is sometimes dealt with as though it had a separate existence. ”

“ With this trustee, by authority of Congress, an adjustment was subsequently made of the large interest which the Government had in the stock of the institution. The manner in which a trust unexpectedly created upon the act granting the charter, and involving such great public interests, has been executed would under any circumstances be a fit subject of inquiry; but much more does it deserve your attention when it embraces the redemption of obligations to which the authority and credit of the United States have given value. ”

“ Although it is, under the will, the duty of the trustees therein named to exercise supervision over the administration of the fund, nevertheless, the death or resignation of the trustees, named in the will cannot, and does not, defeat the bequest. There is not such a personal trust as renders it necessary to have the personal action of the trustee named in the will, and the trust does not fail upon the death or resignation of the named trustee. ”

“ What are the regulations concerning the Trustees?
Ans. 1. No person shall be eligible as a Trustee of any of our parsonages or churches who is not a member of our Church, and at least twenty-one years of age.
2. All vacancies in the Board of Trustees, occasioned by death, resignation, {111} or otherwise, shall be filled without delay.
3. Let nine Trustees be appointed for holding Church property, when proper persons can be procured, otherwise, seven, five, or three, who shall elect their own chairman, secretary, and treasurer. ”

“ The land and buildings are leased to one tenant for a period of thirty years. The trust had transferable certificates issued to shareholders at the par value of $100 each. The trustees conduct the affairs of the trust, manage the property, and pay dividends when declared. The shareholders meet annually, and a majority of them have the power to elect and depose trustees, and to alter and amend the terms of the trust agreement. This trust also continues for certain lives in being and for twenty years thereafter. ”

“ This University of the House of Morgan is run by a board of trustees. Under the law these trustees are the absolute sovereign, the administrators of the property, responsible to no one. They cannot be removed, no matter what they do, and they are self-perpetuating, they appoint their own successors. Their charter, be it noted, is a contract with the state, and can never be altered or revised. Such was the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Dartmouth case, way back in 1819. ”

“ It is a well-settled rule that a trustee can make no profit out of his trust. The rule in such cases springs from his duty to protect the interests of the estate, and not to permit his personal interest to in any wise conflict with his duty in that respect. ”