Patrick v. Birkhead
Patrick v. Birkhead
Opinion of the Court
Opinion of the Court by
In Patrick v. Patrick, 135 Ky., 307, it was held that W. T. Patrick held the estate under the will of his father in trust for the benefit of his mother during her life or widowhood, with remainder to him at her death. On the return of the case to the circuit court after that decision it was referred to a commissioner to report a settlement of the accounts of the trustee, and show the amount in the trustee’s hands belonging to his mother. A report was filed by the commissioner, exceptions were filed to it, and on December 29, 1910, the court sustained the exceptions and quashed the master’s report. He also entered an order directing the trustee to pay his mother within ten days the sum of $200 and to pay her
The writ is applied for on the ground that the circuit judge was without authority to modify at one term a judgment which he had entered at another term, and that when he had entered a judgment at one term, and it was superseded, he was without authority to enter other judgments at another term. The facts of the case do not bring it within the rule relied on. The circuit judge made in December an order directing the payment by the trustee of a certain sum to the beneficiary to supply her temporary needs, and set the case over for hearing on the merits to the January term. At the January term when the commissioner had filed his' report, the circuit judge did not modify the order which he had made in December, but on the facts which he had then before him, made a furl her order directing another sum of money to be paid to the beneficiary. From their very origin, courts of equity have controlled matters between trustee and cestui que trust, requiring the trustee from time to time to do that which in good conscience he should do. When the chancellor here made a temporary allowance to the beneficiary at one term, he did not lost control over the case. He still had the case before him to settle the trust, and require the trustee to execute it proper
The motion for a temporary writ is overruled.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.