The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-01-30
rRusTFUnos IN SAVINGS BANKS
they Are Guarded by the Law for shs
Bcneficiarv's Benefit.

rhey Are Guarded by the Law for shs
Bcnefciarv's Benefit.
The trust funds placed in savings
banks cause a great deal of trouble
sometimes. The case of Charles w.
Palmer, the late contractor of Yonkers,
brings this subject up anew. Mr.. Palm
ea in 1890 placed in the Peoples savings
bank of Yonkers the sum of $1,000 in
trust for his wife; also certain amounts
for two of his children. From time to
time as he needed money he drew from
these trust funds without the consent
of the benefciaries. Upon the death of
Mr.. Palmer the beneficiaries of these
trust funds brought an action against
the executors of the estate to recover
the full amount of money deposited by
Mr.. Palmer in trust for them. Justice
Martin F. Keogh, of the supreme court,
handed down decision holding that
the several deposits vested in the bene-
ficiaries the money SO deposited, and
that the executors must turn over the
original trust money, notwithstanding
the fact that Palmer used it during his
life.
John P. Townsend, president of the
Bowery savings bank of this city, in
speaking of this case told Tribune re-
porter that he considered the decision
good law. He said that in the Bowery
savings bank, which had at the present
time about $4,000 open accounts, there
were at least 1000 placed there in trust.
Indealing these accounts the banks
knew only the trustee. The beneficiary
could not draw the money during the
life of the trustee. Mr.. Townsend
said that the trust accounts were iisu-
ally restricted to members of the same
family. The bank did not encourage
promiscuous or miscellaneous trust de-
posts, and it would accept such only in
exceptional cases. The motive for ere
ating trust deposits differed with the
circumstances governing the case.
Sometimes father at the birth of
child would start a trust account for
the baby. so that when it grew to its
majority 1t would have little sum OF
money to help it in getting married or
starting in business. A case was mem
toned where fond mother, at the birth
of her first baby girl, had started maxi
ing deposit each year of ten dollars
TO the baby's credit, so that when the
time came for her TO get married she
would have something to buy her
trousseau with. When the girl was
well In her teens she found out in some
way that this money had been deposit
ed for her. One day she stole the bank
book and went to the bank to draw the
money, but was chagrined to find that
the bank refused to pay to any one ex-
cept her mother.
Sometimes, Mr.. Townsend said,
husband who was making money would
deposit a sum in trust for his wife, with
cut her knowledge, so that at his death
she would be sure of that amount out
side of anything that his estate might
be worth when e.died At his death
this money would at once be paid to
her by the bank, without waiting for
legal settlement of the estate, and there
was a saving of surrogate's fees. The
amount of money deposited in trust ran
all the way from ten dollars up TO S3,-
600, the limit fixed by a law regulating
the amount savings bank may accept
from any one deposition.
Upon the death of trustee the bank
pays the money at once to the benefi-
ciary unless it has been notified of some
legal transfer of the same into some
other channel. When there is litiga-
ton over such accounts, the bank has
only to make statement of the ac-
count and then ask the court what shall
be done with it. This lets the bank
out of the affair and leaves the beneh-
ciary and trustee or his executor to
fight 1t out between them.-N. Y. Trib-
unc.