Pierce v. Wright
Pierce v. Wright
Opinion of the Court
Upon this appeal there are hut two questions for determination. First, Does the evidence sustain the findings of the trial court? and second, Do the findings sustain the judgment?
It is immaterial whether the defendant did or did not do many of the things alleged in the brief of counsel; if the set
We refer to one other matter, for the reason that it is argued that it ought to be considered part of the settlement. According to the laws of Louisiana the plaintiff became of age and capable of contracting when he reached eighteen. He thereafter organized the Pierce Investment Company to take over the real estate situated in New Orleans. Subsequently the defendant advanced to the plaintiff considerable sums of money, and finally purchased the stock of the Pierce Investment Company from the plaintiff for the benefit of the 'trust fund in his hands, for $18,000. During the time that the negotiations for the settlement of the plaintiff’s claim against the defendant were pending the plaintiff also set up the claim that this transfer was illegal, because, while he was of age in Loui
By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.
The following opinion was filed March 8, 1920:
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). The defendant was the lifelong friend of plaintiff’s father, was appointed by him executor of his will without bond, and subsequently became the trustee of his large estate. He was the friend for many years and adviser in business matters of plaintiff’s mother, consented on her urgent request to act as executor of her estate, and was relieved by. her from the • giving of any bond as such. Defendant knew the plaintiff from birth, was treated as a trusted friend and adviser, and knew thoroughly the plaintiff’s disposition, character, and iri-competency in financial matters.
Knowing all the time of the fact of the application by plaintiff’s mother to her own use of the income from plaint
Immediately after plaintiff’s marriage, when he is but eighteen years of age, defendant takes a written statement from plaintiff and his wife purporting to release defendant from any liability for advances he might make to the plaintiff pending his minority, and over and above the annual income of the estate. With this agreement as apparent protection and yet knowing the unfortunate inability of plaintiff to handle his financial matters with any sort of reasonable care, the defendant advances within four years, on his own responsibility and without any order of the court, to this boy, $21,000 (including the $5,000 concerned herein) over and above the income of $19,000 properly paid for that period, so that for such period the defendant is assisting or permitting the plaintiff to squander at least $10,000 a year.
It was while breaking bread with the plaintiff that defendant suggests the filing of this claim, giving the plaintiff to understand that defendant alone is possessed of knowledge which would make such a claim enforceable. Plaintiff proposed that defendant should have a quarter or a third of such claim if it could be successfully prosecuted, and to this the defendant made no answer. Subsequently the matter was brought up again, and, as stated by plaintiff, he gathered from defendant’s manner that the proposed allowance was too meager, and then, with the spendthrift extravagance that defendant so freely criticised in all other transactions
Shortly after the obtaining of the release from plaintiff in the guardianship matter a claim was made upon the defendant for the refunding of this $5,000 so taken by him from his ward. His concept of the ethical situation involved is vividly illustrated by his statement .that when this demand was made upon him he felt “it was really a case of blackmail.” He turns the matter over to an attorney, and from that time on holds himself,carefully aloof.
There was then an important and crying necessity for over $6,000 to meet plaintiff’s pressing obligations. De
If we look at the reality of things rather than the form, it is plain that the defendant takes out of the trust fund $3,000 for the purpose of assisting and disposing of that which he was pleased to call the blackmailing proposition of compelling him to refund that to which he had nó equitable title and but a most unsubstantial legal title. For his alleged extraordinary services he had obtained an extortionate compensation, and from one with whom he could then make no binding contract.
I think this court should treat the transaction of the payment of the $1,500 out of defendant’s own pocket and of the $3,000 out of the trust fund as an agreed settlement for the payment of $4,500, for a just and proper claim of $5,000, but that, it being an indivisible transaction with the defendant as an individual and not as trustee, he should be held to live up to it as an individual and be required to pay the $3,000 out of his own pocket instead of from the trust fund belonging to plaintiff. In that way no violence is done to the rule of law upholding settlements and, what in my judgment is far more important, the equitable doctrine upheld that one shall not be permitted to enjoy ill-gotten gains by breaching the elementary duties imposed upon those in whom have been placed such trust and confidence.
Reference
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