Weiner v. Weiner
Weiner v. Weiner
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is from a temporary injunction issued September 6, 1922, by the Sixty-First district court of Harris county, restraining the appellant here, James Weiner, from disposing, of or attempting to dispose of his interest in the residuary estate of Josie E. Bell, deceased, until further orders of the court.
Appellant attacks the order awarding the writ on four grounds:
(1) That the decree of the trial court at its December term, 1920, discharging the Guardian Trust Company as trustee of the estate, which it had at the preceding October term appointed as such in substitution for James Weiner, and designating in its stead John Weiner, was void.
(2) That this clause in the will of Josie E. Bell, “Whenever and wherever in this will a trust is created and a trustee or his successor is named, or provided for, and such trust shall fail, by reason of the failure or refusal of the trustee to assume and handle said property, it is my will and desire that my said executors may appoint a trustee to satisfy and discharge the terms of such trust,” provided a method for the selection of a substitute trustee which, in the absence of a showing that these executors had refused or were unable to act, was exclusive and left the court without authority to name a trustee of its own selection to conduct the trust.
(3) That plaintiffs’ bill for injunction, shows they had adequate remedies at law, but does not show sufficient equities to justify the issuance of the temporary writ.
(4) That the evidence was insufficient as a basis for injunctive relief.
These objections will be noticed in their order, with such statement of the facts as is deemed essential'to a disposition of them.
The order appointing John Weiner trustee, of date December 28, 1920, thus first assailed as being void, was entered in these circumstances:
Mrs. Bell’s will, which had been probated September 5, 1917, and under which appellant, James Weiner, and Katy Waggaman were appointed independent executors, after *475 certain specific bequests to a number of different individuals, left ber residuary estate to James Weiner as trustee for his mother during her lifetime, and then at her death to be distributed between himself and his four brothers and sisters. Pursuant to these directions, the estate was duly turned over to James Weiner as such trustee, and on October 4, 1920, while he was in the process of administering it, his brothers and sisters and cobeneficiaries under the will sued him in the court below-, alleging that he had been derelict in the discharge of his trust, and asked his removal and the appointment by the court of a substitute trustee. On considering this application, the court first named a temporary receiver to take charge of the assets of the estate, then on October 19, 1920, still during its October term, removed James Weiner as trustee, and appointed the Guardian Trust Company in his place, the decree reciting, “In view of the urgency of the occasion, all provisions of this decree shall go into immediate effect without the necessity of the prior execution and filing of said bond and said final report,” referring to a report of the temporary receiver and a bond from the trust company, which were also provided for.
Subsequently, at the December term and ■on the 28th of that month, after the trust ■company had asked to be discharged and the. plaintiffs in the suit against James Weiner had by motion requested that one of them, .John Weiner, be appointed trustee in its stead, the court relieved the trust company and designated John Weiner as trustee.
In this situation we are inclined to agree in part with appellant’s contention here to the effect that this appointment of a trustee at the October term of the trial court, having been expressly made to go into immediate effect, notwithstanding the other requirements of a report from the receiver and a ‘bond from his successor, made the order so ■appointing a trustee a final one, but it does not follow, we think, that the subsequent judgment at the succeeding term on December 28th appointing a new trustee was void, and therefore subject to the collateral attack made upon it by the appellant in this proceed" ing.
It is quite true it appears from this record that appellant, James Weiner, had no notice of this impending change in trustees, but that fact would not seem to make any difference in the applicability of the rule just stated, as appears from the following quotation from the text of Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure, vol. 11, at page 288:
“The notice or summons is not in the nature of a process to bring the party into court and give jurisdiction of the person. This being so, the appointment of the new trustee is valid, although made without formal notice to and summons of those interested. It may be irregular or erroneous, but upon a direct proceeding may be set aside or reversed, and its validity cannot be questioned in a collateral action.”
Accordingly point 1 on which the appeal is predicated cannot be sustained.
A further consideration in this connection is that quite a number of specific bequests to different individuals through various trustees were made in the will, and it does not seem an unreasonable construction to say that the quoted clause had reference to the possible failure of those trusts through the neglect or refusal of the trustees named therein to act.
It is not perceived how the ordinary legal processes by attachment, garnishment, or *476 sequestration would Rave afforded an ade-' quate or effective remedy in such circumstances; that the equities set up in the bill were sufficient we have no doubt.
Our conclusion is that the temporary writ has not been shown to have been improvidently issued. The judgment will he affirmed.
Affirmed.
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