Gibson v. Gibson
Gibson v. Gibson
Opinion of the Court
Eespondents chiefly rely on the statutes ■of limitations to support the judgment. To that appellant ■says Mark Gibson was trustee of an express trust and cannot invoke the statutes of limitations to defeat the claim of his cestui que trust. True, Gibson was such trustee as regards a power of sale and control of the property in controversy for the payment of the debts of the deceased, but for no ■other purpose. Barker v. Barker, 11 Wis. 131; sec. 3823, Stats. 1898; Carpenter v. Fopper, 91 Wis. 116. ITis status as trustee was extinguished when the sale of the real estate took place. His relationship to the estate, which gave rise to the trust relation, was wholly terminated in 1872, when he was discharged as administrator. From that time, at least, there was an unequivocal disavowal by him of any trust relation to the plaintiff or to the property in dispute. The rule invoked applies only to continuing trusts. The suspension of the statutes of limitations, as to a person once a trustee, ceases upon the termination of his character as such, and before that time if he distinctly disavow the existence of the trust relation by holding the subject of the trust adversely, openly, and with notice to the cestui que trust. Angell, Limitations, § 174; Riddle v. Whitehill, 135 U. S. 621. There was obviously no continuing trust in this case that reached beyond the settlement of the administrator’s account and his discharge, and no trust precluding the running of the statute of limitations in his favor after the open, notorious surrender of the subject of the trust pursuant to the administrator’s sale.
■ Appellant’s counsel further contend that the administrator’s deed is open to attack because plaintiff, under sec. 4218, Stats. 1898, was entitled to five years after becoming of age within which to commence an action to recover the property conveyed thereby. Waiving the" question of whether the five years had fully run before this action was commenced, the conclusive answer to appellant’s proposition is
The conclusion necessarily reached is that the time for the commencement of this action terminated on the 7th day of April, 1891, long before the commencement of the action
By the Court.— The judgment of the county court is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Gibson v. Gibson and wife
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- 1 case
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- Published