Case ID: ky_8/html/0242-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "The Chief Justice", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

12 June, 1818.
    
    SAMUEL MERIDITH, vs. DAVID M. HICKMAN.
    
      On an appeal from a decree of the Fayette circuit court.
    
    As between the trustee & Irust n court te equity h s jurisdiction execuTion^of the trust.
    But for a uTuS property by a stranger, ofthe'rme<de is wholly "at law.
    
      Wickliffe for appellant, Haggin for the appellee.
   The Chief Justice

delivered the opinion of the court.

There is not a solitary circumstance in this case which can, in principle, distinguish it from the cases of Nismith vs. Bowler, 3 Bibb, 487, and Kendrick vs. Arnold, 4 Bibb, 235, in both of which cases it was held, that a court of equity was ihcompetent to give relief. The idea that a court of equity has jurisdiction of this case, because the property taken in execution by the defendant, is held by the complainant in trust for a third person, is most indisputably without any foundation in principle.

As between the trustee and the cestui que trust, and those claiming under them, a court of equity has, no doubt, ju-risdietion for the purpose of enforcing the faithful execution of the trust. Butin a controversy like the present, between the trustee and a stranger to the trust, there caa n0 prctence f°r *^le interposition of a court of equity, If the complainant, as trustee, has any right to the property in question, in this case, his right must be a legal one, and consequently a court of law will afford an adequate remedy for 0nJ wrong done to it. *

The decree of the coürt below, therefore, dismissing the cornP^a'nan*',s kill, is correct, and must be affirmed with cost, and the cause be remanded, that the bill may be dis.missed with costs.