Ellis v. Hibernia Savings, Building & Loan Ass'n
Ellis v. Hibernia Savings, Building & Loan Ass'n
Opinion of the Court
On December 15, 1931, Mrs. Sarah E. Sennett instituted an equitable action against the Hibernia Savings, Building and Loan Association and Peter E. Clarke. Mrs. Sennett died, and Erampton E. Ellis as administrator of her estate was substituted as plaintiff. After institution of the suit Peter E. Clarke was adjudged insane, and H. W. McLarty was appointed his guardian ad litem. The case was heard on demurrers interposed by each defendant. The court overruled the demurrer of Clarke, to which ruling there was no exception. The court sustained the general demurrer interposed by the Hibernia Savings, Building and Loan Association, and as to that defendant dismissed the action. The plaintiff excepted.
The petition as amended alleged substantially the following: The plaintiff is a widow 88 years of age, who at the time of the transactions hereinafter referred to resided beyond the limits of the State. Prior to 1907, and continuously until 1931, Peter E. Clarke as her trusted agent and friend handled money for her in making-loans and collections thereof on real estate. While acting as such agent in 1913 Clarke in behalf of petitioner loaned, from funds in liis hands as agent, $1000 to Mrs. Wilson, for which a security deed was duly executed. The deed conveyed certain land in DeKalb County, Georgia, of the value of $7000. Clarke continued to handle this loan as well as other loans for plaintiff. The Wilson loan became in default, and Peter E. Clarke employed J. Caleb Clarke as attorney at law, and proceeded to foreclose the security by suit in which a judgment was rendered on June 12, 1919, in favor of plaintiff for the principal debt with accumulated interest and attorney’s fees, amounting approximately to $1500. Execution was issued, and the property brought to sale in October, 1919. Peter E. Clarke, acting as her agent in handling the collection of this loan, bid in the property at $1000, and received a deed in his individual name. He did not remit to her the proceeds of the sale or report the sale to her, but concealed from her the fact of the sale, and subsequently wrote to her letters stating that no collection had been made of the loan. On the basis of such conduct, it was alleged that Peter E. Clarke, in taking title to the property in his own name without the knowledge of petitioner, and his failure to remit the proceeds,'constituted him in equity a trustee ex maleficio for her benefit. On May 15, 1923, approximately four years after the sale,
“The application of Peter F. Clarke for this loan was referred to the Beal Estate Committee. This committee had the function of considering the application, the security offered, and the circumstances of the case, and deciding whether the loan should be made. There were three members of this committee. Peter F. Clarke was a member. The Beal Estate Committee, including Peter F, Clarke, considered this application in behalf of the association, and decided that it should be made! Also, the board of directors including Peter F. Clarke met and approved the application in behalf of the association. The regularly employed attorney of the association was then directed to examine the title to the land offered as security, this being the same land described in paragraph three of the petition. This attorney had authority, in behalf of the association, to examine the title to the said land, and to report any defects in the title of Peter F. Clarke, whether appearing of record or personally known by the attorney. He did examine the title to the land for the association. He was the at
Other allegations were substantially as follows. Clarke subdivided the land into lots, and during the period intervening between 1924 and 1927 made sales of designated lots, deriving therefrom $18,250.-00, and in the consummation of the sales the. Hibernia Savings, Building and Loan Association executed quitclaim deeds to the respective purchasers. From the proceeds of the subdivision and sale at least $4819.20 was collected in behalf of the Hibernia Savings, Building and Loan Association by Peter F. Clarke, and was retained by the association. The only claim of the association to said funds was under and through Peter F. Clarke. The said funds were used in the business of the association and mingled with its assets, in which shape they continued to remain. Said funds increased the association’s assets, and are now traceable in the assets of the association, and are impressed in equity with a trust in favor of petitioner. In May, 1931, Peter F. Clarke executed to the Hibernia Savings, Building and Loan Association a deed conveying all the land upon a purported consideration of “ten dollars and other valuable considerations.” There was in fact no cash or property given as present consideration of the deed. It was given as part payment on the pre-existing debt of Clarke to the association; and therefore the association was not a purchaser for value. At the time.of accepting the deed the Hibernia Savings, Building and Loan Association “had notice, or actual knowledge, through its agents acting in its behalf, of the misconduct of Peter F. Clarke, above mentioned, and of the equity of your petitioner in said property,” and “its action in accepting the deed assisted Peter F. Clarke in his misapplication of the property described in the deed; and for this wrong the association should be held accountable. By tak
The prayers were (1) “For a general judgment against each defendant for at least $4819.20, and costs, and attorney’s fees, and for an accounting in order to determine what, if any, allowance should be made to either or both defendants, and in order to so mold the decree as to do full equity ’ between the parties, as petitioner stands ready to do equity; and in addition that the defendants be held to be trustees ex maleficio as to the property described in paragraph three of the petition, and the proceeds thereof.” (2) “That petitioner have in addition a lien against the property described in paragraph three of the petition, to secure the aforesaid judgment; and that the defendants be decreed to hold whatever interest they have in said property for the benefit of petitioner, and that they be required- to convey such interests to petitioner, or pay petitioner the value thereof.” (3) “And that the assets of the Hibernia Savings, Building and Loan Association be impressed with a trust in favor of petitioner to the extent of $4819.20.”
“Trusts are implied . . whenever the legal title is in one person, but the beneficial interest, either from the payment of the purchase money or other circumstances, is either wholly or partially in another.” Code of 1910, § 3739 (Code of 1933, § 108-106). The allegations of the petition are sufficient, as against a general demurrer, to charge an implied trust in favor of the plaintiff.
“All persons aiding and assisting trustees of any character, with a knowledge of their misconduct, in misapplying assets, are directly accountable to the persons injured.” Code of 1910, § 3784 (Code of 1933, § 108-423). On the question of notice to the Hibernia Savings, Building and Loan Association of the alleged fraud of Peter F. Clarke, paragraph 16 of the petition as finally amended (quoted above), construed most strongly against the plaintiff, purports to charge notice to the corporation only by imputing
The rulings stated in the second division deal with the transaction as relates to the original security deed and the rights of the parties thereunder. The subsequent deed executed by Peter F.
Judgment reversed.
Concurring Opinion
concurring specially. I concur in the judgment of reversal, as stated in the third division of the opinion. I do not concur in the ruling contained in the second division. My views concur, in my opinion, under the facts of the case at bar, with those expressed in Brobston v. Penniman, 97 Ga. 527, 529-530 (supra), where Mr. Justice Lumpkin, after citing a number of authorities, said: “These cases all proceed upon the idea that as a corporation must of necessity entrust its affairs to officers and agents, and can transact business only through their agency, it must be held chargeable with their acts while in the performance of their duty to it; and if its duly selected servants prove unfaithful to their trust, the corporation itself must suffer, rather than innocent third persons. Surely, as against such persons, a corporation can not claim the benefits arising from any contract made in its behalf through its officers, when these officers knew that the contract would operate as a fraud upon others, but nevertheless participated in or connived at the fraudulent transaction. The corporation would be bound either to repudiate entirely, or adopt unconditionally and without reservation, the acts of its agents in negotiating for and perfecting the contract made in its behalf — it could not elect to ratify and adopt such of the acts and conduct of its agents as operated beneficially to it, and repudiate such conduct (active or passive) as would constitute a fraud upon the parties sought to be charged with the contract. To hold, in the present case, that the plaintiff was entitled to recover
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.