Zantzingers v. Gunton/Opinion of the Court

by Samuel Freeman Miller

United States Supreme Court

86 U.S. 32

Zantzingers  v.  Gunton

The complainants in their bill, omitting any statement of the formal instrument of appointment made by Fisher, and treating the deed of trust as a mere security for his note, allege that there is a balance in the hands of the trustee, Gunton, to which they are entitled, and call upon him for an account.

The answer of the defendant, which is fully sustained by the proof, sets up two defences, either of which is in our opinion sufficient:

1. It sets up and relies upon the instrument which appointed and directed that he should pay any balance remaining of the proceeds of the sale of the lots, after satisfying the note, to the trustees of the Bank of Washington.

As these instruments are all under seal and by the common law imply on their face a good consideration, they show that the grantor had parted with all his interest in the property. The legal title was in the trustee, and the equitable interest in the trustees of the bank. His direction to the trustee to sell, and his subsequent direction to pay the proceeds to these trustees, carried all the interest he ever held. Of course, no interest in these lots or in the proceeds of their sale passed either by his will or by inheritance to the complainants.

2. But the answer and the evidence further show very fully that William Fisher only held the legal title as naked trustee without interest, for the use of the trustees of the Bank of Washington. About the period of the expiration of the charter of that institution, it became necessary, in order to secure payment of a debt due to it from Daniel Carroll, to have the lots in question, on which they had a lien, placed in a situation where the money could be realized. The lots were accordingly purchased by Fisher, at the request of the trustees of the bank, who furnished the money, and the note and trust deed to Gunton (who was one of the trustees of the bank) were devices by which the lots were divested of other liens and placed in the hands of Gunton, so that on sales to be made, at convenient times and fair prices, the proceeds in the shape of money could be paid to the trustees who had the management of the bank. Fisher never paid any money, nor was it intended that he should. His note was placed in the bank, and was by it protected and cancelled in due time. It was on his part a mere act of friendship to accept the trust and confidence reposed in him by the trustees of the bank, and he carried out faithfully the requirements of that trust. The efforts of the present complainants to take advantage of this confidence, and to assert an interest which he never thought of claiming, do not commend themselves to a court of equity, and the technical rules of the law on which they are based should be very clearly in their favor to enable them to succeed. We are of opinion they have no place here.

It is said that neither the bank, whose charter had expired, nor the trustees who were authorized to wind up its affairs, could purchase or hold real estate.

As a general propositions this may be true. And if the transaction here was in its effect to vest in the bank the real estate in question, either by its legal title or the absolute equitable ownership and control of it, the question presented and argued by counsel would arise if complainants were in position to raise it. But it is very clear that no such effect can be given to the transaction we are considering. The bank had a debt due to it and a lien on this property. The right of the bank, or its liquidating trustees, to have this property so sold as to pay this debt is undoubted. If in doing this they were compelled, for their own protection, to buy off other incumbrances, so that when sold and converted into money all of it should be paid to them, no principle of law or justice was violated. Neither the bank nor the trustees of the bank ever had the legal title, or the power of sale, or the right to control the time or the terms of the sale. If Gunton, the trustee, had failed or refused to sell, or died without a sale, no power lay in the trustees of the bank to make a sale or to receive the title. Their only remedy would have been to assert their right to a sale and to the proceeds of it in a court of chancery.

It cannot be said, then, that the trustees of the bank ever had the legal title, the control, or the ownership of the land, and their only interest was a right to the proceeds when the lots should be sold under the deed of trust. This was not in our opinion forbidden by any law of the District, statutory or otherwise. Nor do we think it worth any consideration that Fisher's note was given in the transaction. He incurred no risk; he acquired no real interest in the property and claimed none; and if he ever had a technical legal interest he parted with it when he gave the deed of trust and the subsequent authority to pay the proceeds of the sale to the trustees of the bank.

DECREE AFFIRMED.

Notes