What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals. The issue is: "Did the court rule that some evidence, other than a confession made by the defendant or illegal search and seizure, was inadmissibile, (or did ruling on appropriateness of evidentary hearing benefit the defendant)?" Answer the question based on the directionality of the appeals court decision. If the court discussed the issue in its opinion and answered the related question in the affirmative, answer "Yes". If the issue was discussed and the opinion answered the question negatively, answer "No". If the opinion considered the question but gave a mixed answer, supporting the respondent in part and supporting the appellant in part, answer "Mixed answer". If the opinion does not discuss the issue, or notes that a particular issue was raised by one of the litigants but the court dismissed the issue as frivolous or trivial or not worthy of discussion for some other reason, answer "Issue not discussed". If the opinion considered the question but gave a "mixed" answer, supporting the respondent in part and supporting the appellant in part (or if two issues treated separately by the court both fell within the area covered by one question and the court answered one question affirmatively and one negatively), answer "Mixed answer". If the opinion either did not consider or discuss the issue at all or if the opinion indicates that this issue was not worthy of consideration by the court of appeals even though it was discussed by the lower court or was raised in one of the briefs, answer "Issue not discussed". If the court answered the question in the affirmative, but the error articulated by the court was judged to be harmless, answer "Yes, but error was harmless".

Opinion:
PEYSER v. AMERICAN SECURITY & TRUST CO.
No. 7234.
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Decided July 17, 1939.
Rehearing Denied Nov. 10, 1939.
Irwin Geiger, of Washington, D. C., for appellant.
Frederic D. McKenney, John S. Flannery, and G. Bowdoin Craighill, all of Washington, D. C., for appellee.
Before STEPHENS, EDGERTON, and VINSON, Associate Justices.
STEPHENS, Associate Justice.
This is an appeal from a decree of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia dismissing, on motion of the appellee, the petition of the appellant. As stated in the petition, the facts are as follows: The appellee is sole trustee under the will of John R. McLean, deceased. At the time of the events involved Edward McLean was a co-trustee with the appellee, but has since resigned. In January, .1931, Edward McLean, as co-trustee, employed the appellant as a broker to procure a purchaser for the Washington Post, which was a part of the trust estate, undertaking, if the terms of sale were satisfactory to the trustees, to pay him a commission of a specified percentage of the price. The appellee, as co-trustee, approved and ratified this agreement. The appellant procured an offer of purchase providing that, when signed by the trustees, it should become binding subject to the approval of the court, and providing also that the trustees should take the necessary steps to procure such approval if possible. The trustees accordingly filed in the District Court in a proceeding in which the court was already, in exercise of its equitable jurisdiction, supervising the trust, a petition asking approval of the sale. But approval of the court was not obtained. The Post was later sold to another purchaser, and the trustees refused to pay the commission.
The appellant then sued each of the trustees, in their personal capacities, at law for breach of contract, but failed to recover. Peyser v. American Security & Trust Co., 1934, 63 App.D.C. 299, 72 F.2d 92; McLean v. Peyser, 1935, 169 Md. 1, 179 A. 58. He then filed a second suit at law in the District Court against the appellee personally, again for breach of contract, but again failed. The appellant then filed, in the proceeding in equity referred to above, the petition in the present suit, asking the court to determine the amount of compensation to which he was “justly and equitably entitled” and to order the appellee as trustee to pay such amount to him. The petition was dismissed upon four grounds; that the proper remedy was by an action at law against the appellee in its personal, rather than its fiduciary, capacity; that the appellant’s right to recover was determined in the prior actions described; that no benefit to the estate was shown by the allegations of the petition; that the appellant was guilty of laches.
It is necessary to discuss only the first ground of dismissal. By the overwhelming weight of authority the contract of a trustee binds him personally if binding as a contract at all. An obligation entered into by a trustee must, therefore, be enforced by a suit at law against him personally. Save in exceptional situations not here involved, there is no direct remedy against the cestui que trust or the trust estate. See 1 Williston, Contracts (Rev.Ed.1936) § 312; Scott, Trusts (1939) §§ 267-271A. Illustrative of the rule is Taylor v. Davis, 1884, 110 U.S. 330, 4 S.Ct. 147, 28 L.Ed. 163. Therein the defendants, who were trustees, contracted that, in consideration of the transfer to them by the plaintiff’s decedent, a prior trustee, of the trust property without requiring previous payment of debts due to him out of the property, they would apply funds coming into their hands as trustees to the discharge of his claims. The plaintiff sued the trustees at law in their personal capacities. The Court held this was the proper procedure for enforcing the obligation. In so ruling, the Court said:
“When an agent contracts in the name of his principal, the principal contracts and is bound, but the agent is not. When a trustee contracts as such, unless he is bound no one is bound, for he has no principal. The trust estate cannot promise; the contract is therefore the personal undertaking of the trustee. As a trustee holds the estate, although only with the power and for the purpose of managing it, he is personally bound by the contracts he makes as trustee, even when designating himself as such. The mere use by the promisor of the name of the trustee or any other name of office or employment will not discharge him. Of course when a trustee acts in good faith for the benefit of the trust, he is entitled to indemnify himself for his engagements out of the estate in his hands, and for this purpose a credit for his expenditures will be allowed in his accounts by the court having jurisdiction thereof.” [110 U.S. at page 335, 4 S.Ct. at page 150, 28 L.Ed. 163]
Other cases exemplifying the rule are: Vass v. Conron Brothers Co., 2 Cir., 1932, 59 F.2d 969; Johnson v. Leman, 1890, 131 Ill. 609, 23 N.E. 435, 7 L.R.A. 656, 19 Am.St.Rep. 63. See also Restatement, Trusts (1935) §§ 267-271, and the collection and analysis of authorities in Williston, loc. cit. supra. There being no local decisions, we think we should adopt the majority rule, especially in view of the decision in the Supreme Court.
The appellant apparently contends that the adverse decisions in Peyser v. American Security & Trust Co. and McLean v. Peyser, supra, wherein the trustees were sued at law in their personal capacities, necessitate the conclusion that the present suit was properly in equity. But an examination of the cases referred to discloses that they were not decided against the appellant upon the theory that he had mistaken his remedy, but upon the ground that he had failed to prove a cause of action upon the express contract.
Affirmed.
This decision is not reported.

Question: Did the court rule that some evidence, other than a confession made by the defendant or illegal search and seizure, was inadmissibile (or did ruling on appropriateness of evidentary hearing benefit the defendant)?

Choices:
No
Yes
Yes, but error was harmless
Mixed answer
Issue not discussed

Answer: 4