Opinion ID: 1760309
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Statute on Trust Estates Subject to Execution

Text: ¶ 10. The Slighs cite Miss. Code Ann. § 89-1-43 (1991), first enacted in 1824 and amended in 1857, which provides in part: Estates of any kind holden or possessed in trust for another, shall be subject to the like debts and charges of the person to whose use or for whose benefit they are holden or possessed as they would have been subject to them if the person had owned the like interest in the thing holden or possessed as he may own in the uses or trusts thereof, whether the trusts be fully executed or not. Although this statute initially appears to subject trust estates to any claims of the beneficiaries' creditors, the statute goes on to say that [s]aid estates may be sold under execution at law ... (emphasis added). This Court held long ago that this statute provides no aid to the creditor who proceeds in a court of equity, nor can it subject the trustee's estate to the debts of the beneficiary unless the beneficiary has an equitable estate in the property of which the trustee has legal title. Leigh v. Harrison, 69 Miss. 923, 11 So. 604 (1892). Therefore, this statute adds nothing to the Slighs' claim.