Read v. Robinson
Read v. Robinson
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
The ordinary power of a chancellor extends no further than the execution of a trust sufficiently formed to put the legal title out of the grantor; or to the execution of an agreement for a trust founded on a valuable consideration. Such was the doctrine of Lord Eldon in Ex parte Pye, (18 Vez. 140); Ellison v. Ellison, (6 Vez. 662); and Pulvertoft v. Pulvertoft, (18 Vez. 99); and such too was the doctrine of Sir William Grant, in Antrobus v. Smith, (12 Vez. 39); and Sloane v. Cadogan, (Sugd. Vend. App. No. 26). According to Twelves v. Williams, (3 Whart. 485), equity would not execute this assignment as an agreement, because the creditors are volunteers; but the doctrine maintained by the masterly argument of Justice Ventris, in Thompson v. Leach, (2 Vent. 201), and eventually established by the decision of that case in the House of Lords,(is. that a common law conveyance put into the hands of an agent for transmission to the graptee, takes effect the instant it is parted with, and vests the title though the grantee be ignorant of the transaction ;}and that the rejection
But our statute would sustain it even if a chancellor would not. The Act of 1836 provides that the several courts having jurisdiction, shall have power to appoint assignees or trustees “ where any sole assignee or trustee shall re-nmtnce the trust, or ceüiae to act under or wholly execute the sarhe.” Now a trust depending for its existence on the assent of the trustee to the grant'in which it is declared, is, when renounced, in the very category defined in the first member of the clause; for it is a rule, to which there is said to be no exception, that there is no renunciation after accept
But to constitute renunciation, there must be an express rejection or a tacit refusal to act; for there can be no renunciation where the assignee is ignorant of the existence of the paper. Was he ignorant of it in this case? CThe instrument was put into the/ hands of Joseph Amies, to be handed, to Ward, who tendered it to the assignee, and it was rejected.; According to the Touchstone, page 75, the naked deposit of a sealed instrument for no declared purpose, is not a delivery of it; and it might perhaps not be a tender to the grantee within the statute, did it require one. But here there was a purpose declared; and when we find the depositary handing the paper to the person to whom it was sent by the assignor, and that person presenting it to the assignee, a presumption arises from the nature of the case, that the tender was made by authority communicated through some channel which does not appear. The statute, however, does not call for a tender by au-. thority : it is satisfied when there has been an express renunciation in fact, and for that reason the assignment ought to have gone to the jury.
The objection to the recording is unfounded. It was certainly competent for a party interested in the trust, to take the necessary steps to have it executed.
Judgment reversed, and procedendo awarded.
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