Court Opinion

ID: 9651469
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:19:51.774073+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:06.162092
License: Public Domain

BRATTON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part).
I am unable to concur in that part of the opinion of the majority holding the trustee liable for part of the attorneys’ fees and costs. The rules relating to a trustee dealing with himself in respect of *522trust property .are well understood. But these were essentially family trusts, and it was intended and understood from the start that the trustee would use the funds constituting' the trust estates in connection with his individual business activities. That was contemplated by all parties in interest from the very outset.
The complaint and amended complaint each contained many sweeping charges of faithless conduct on the part of the trustee, but the major issues in the case were the validity of the transfers of funds from the Crutcher and White trusts to the Ella Joyce trust, and the investment of trust funds in stock of the National Livestock Company. The other questions were minor in importance. The trial court upheld the validity of the transfers of funds to the Ella Joyce trust, and that determination is being sustained by this court. In respect of that issue, the litigation was improvidently begun. While denying any misconduct in the investment of trust funds in the stock of National Livestock Company, the trustee virtually consented that the transactions be disaffirmed and the money restored to the trust estates, and that was done. There was no finding of bad faith on the part of the trustee, either in the transfers of the funds to the Ella Joyce trust or in the investment of funds in the stock of the National Livestock Company. Indeed, there was no finding of bad faith on his part from beginning to end. Instead, the trial court expressly found that he had kept full and complete books of account; that he acted throughout in the utmost good faith in all transactions affecting the trusts; and that he sought at all times to carry out the wishes of the father, and of the creators of the trusts. These findings are supported by substantial evidence and are not plainly erroneous. Therefore they should not be overturned on appeal. Prudential Insurance Co. v. Carlson, 10 Cir., 126 F.2d 607; Newell v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 10 Cir., 144 F.2d 338; Davies v. Lahann, 10 Cir., 145 F.2d 656.
The trustee has acted for more than twenty years. Throughout that time he furnished the ability, skill, and energy in the management of the trusts for the accomplishment of the purposes for which they were created. And he has served without charge, compensation, or remuneration. Even so, under the opinion of the majority he is now to be penalized for part of the attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in the litigation. That squarely contravenes the applicable rule of law in a case of this kind. Buder v. Franz, 8 Cir., 27 F.2d 101, certiorari denied, 273 U.S. 756, 47 S.Ct. 459, 71 L.Ed. 876; Gray v. Union Trust Co. of Indianapolis, 213 Ind. 675, 12 N.E.2d 931, modified in respect of a matter not material here, 14 N.E.2d 532; Butler v. Builders Trust Co., 203 Minn. 555, 282 N.W. 462, 124 A.L.R. 1178. I think that the judgment should be in all respects affirmed.