Source: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Gardner_v._Brown
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 07:47:33+00:00

Document:
The Code of Tennessee  enacts that every trustee to whom property is conveyed in trust for any person, 'before entering upon the discharge of his duty shall give bond,' &c., for the faithful discharge of his duties. But the act does not declare that if he does not give the bonds he shall cease to be trustee.
This provision of the code and this act of Congress being in force, one Gardner, a citizen of New York, but owning land in Tennessee, conveyed it in trust (the deed of trust being only another form of mortgage) to a certain Walker, a citizen of Tennessee, to secure certain promissory notes, a debt which he owed to Vassar, now deceased, and of whose estate Brown, also a citizen of Tennessee, had become administrator. Walker, as trustee, was authorized, upon default of payment of the debt, to take possession of the mortgaged premises and sell them, upon certain specified terms and conditions.
In this state of things Brown, the administrator, and as already said a citizen of Tennessee, filed a bill of foreclosure in a chancery court of Tennessee, against Gardner, the debtor, and of New York, and Walker, the trustee, of the same State with himself, for the foreclosure of the mortgage or deed of trust executed by Gardner. The service on Gardner was by publication.
The answer admitted what was here said as to Walker's not having qualified, & c.
An amended bill, alleging that all that was said about Walker in the original bill was true, and affirming it, alleged that the deed of trust was written by Walker, and along with the promissory notes which it secured signed, executed, and acknowledged in his presence; that immediately, with the notes, it was delivered to him, and that he received and accepted the notes and deeds, and accepted the trust.
The State court granted the motion and made the order of removal, but the Circuit Court, being of the opinion that Walker was a necessary party to the relief asked against Gardner, refused to entertain jurisdiction and remanded the cause, and from this, its action, Gardner took this appeal.
The original bill makes it plain that Walker never accepted the trust. Even in the amended bill the only facts set forth as evidence of acceptance, are that the deed was written by Walker, that it was signed, acknowledged, and executed by the parties in his presence, and then and there delivered to him, together with the notes secured by it, and that he accepted and received the same as trustee.
But conceding for the sake of argument that such acts would amount to an acceptance under the common law, in the absence of other circumstances appearing in this case, we say that it does not under the Code of Tennessee. In Barcroft v. Snodgrass,  the Supreme Court of Tennessee decided that until the requirements of the statute are complied with, the party 'is not legally competent to act as trustee.' It is plain, therefore, that Walker was not the trustee. He did not hold the legal title. He was a useless party. Indeed, he was no proper party at all. The 'final determination' of the cause did not require his presence.
The essential question is in some degree, one of fact; do the pleadings show that Walker renounced the trust; or that under the code he became incapable of accepting the legal title; or after having had it cast upon him, became subsequently divested of it, by his omission to give bond, &c.?
We confine ourselves to the original bill, sufficiently clear, without relying on the amended one, still more specific.
^2 14 Stat. at Large, 306.
^3 Burrill on Assignments (2d ed.), p. 305.
^5 Vance v. Smith, 2 Heiskell, 343; Mills v. Haines, 3 Head, 335.
^6 McEwen v. Troost, 1 Sneed, 186, 191, citing 4 Kent, 456, and Games v. Stiles, 14 Peters, 326, 327; Martin v. Ramsey, 5 Humphrey, 350; Farrar v. Bridges, Ib. 411, where the deed was held complete, although left in possession of the grantor.
^7 Furman v. Fisher, 4 Coldwell, 626, 630; Farquharson v. McDonald, 2 Heiskell, 405, 418.
^8 Saunders v. Harris, 1 Head, 185, 206.
^9 McRea v. Branch Bank of Alabama, 19 Howard, 376; Russell v. Clark, 7 Cranch, 68; see also Shields v. Barrow, 17 Howard, 139.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.