The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-11-12 00:00:00

THE LIABILITY OF TRUSTEES.

It will be well for all lemma wloi are asked to be.
come trnetees under • marriage settlement to study the
case of Westmoreland v. Holland, which came before
the Vice-Chancellor last week. It is, as remarked by
the conned for the plaintiffs, one of those unfortunate
Cope, in which the estates of trustees to whom no iris.
concinet could be imputed, who had not even received
Ithe money f.,r which it was sought to make them
liable, who had probably never given a thought to the
matter alter executing the deed, DOW upwards of forty
nears ego, are made responsible for a breach of tivat.
It stems that in April, 1828, upon the marriake of a
Mr. and Mrs. Wortmoredand, a settlement we.,
executed of a sum of £1,400, which had, with a sum of
£3llO not expressly included in the sottletn,.fle,
been lent by Mr. Westmorelauel to a Mr. Holland, '
a friend if all coucerned. The deed, which .
hall since been het, but of which an examined
copy was found and produced, couteined the usual
recital that the trustees had received the £1,400 pre-
viously to the marriage, but both some were in fact
allowed to remain in Mr. Holland's hands during his
1 life, and ,erts paid in 1848 by hot exeentors to a Mr.
V it, •o, e Cooke, who was one of the two legal per.
towel repreemtativeto of the survivor of the two gen-
tlemen whose Dames appear in the copy of the deed as
. trnstees, and who was also solicitor to Mrs. West.
mereland. The inherent was paid, first lay Mr. Holland
sea •fterweds by Mr. Frederick Cooke. to Mr..
Wenn,. ...eland. and after her death to Mr. West-
mer.Used teratil 18C7, when Mr. Frecerick Cooke died
in.“l...nt. Ills eet ate produced a dividend of about
to. • the pen ud ; end the plaintiffs now sought to
reekt. , o, estates of 'no two deceased trustees !wpm-
ei' ' • f'' the beim, e ' the trust funds, on the ground
t .1. they hivi failed b, 'heir duty of seeing that the
fi,,,is a ere proterte- inested. the Vice-Chancellor,
aft ••r °heaving on 11.•• hardelaiii of the case,
elk yeti it to stand over • few days, in the
hope that sottie ...ninpromilie might be effected ;
but wletever may be the result, the fact that
the gowl nate re of grandfathers can be thus visited OD
their grandchildren ought to make people very cautious
in accepting a liability which can produce much seriona
coneequencee on their descendants. Few persons have
the heart to re,is: the entreatiee of an enamoured
young couple who beg them as a mere matter of form
to become the tenet,. of their marriage eettlement.
He is, perhaps, wisest who turns a deaf ear to all sup-
plieations if this nature (remarks the Pall Mull (lazelti
in noticing the ease) but there ran be no doubt that, the
geed nature of a trustee should, under existing circum-
stances, cease with hie acceptance of the post; and
that however absurd may be the terms of the settle-
men", however great may be the hardship and incon-
venience caused by a etrict adherence to them, his duty
to himself anal those who come after him renders it
imperative on him to exchange the heart of a friendfor
that of an attorney.