Baker v. Springfield & Western Missouri R.R. Co.

• Decision Date: 30 April 1885
• Parties: BAKER, Appellant, v. THE SPRINGFIELD & WESTERN MISSOURI RAILROAD COMPANY.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

86 Mo. 75

BAKER, Appellant,

v.THE SPRINGFIELD & WESTERN MISSOURI RAILROAD COMPANY.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

April Term, 1885.

Appeal from Greene Circuit Court.--HON. W. F. GEIGER, Judge.

AFFIRMED.

James Baker pro se.

(1) The rule that a trustee may not purchase the trust property “does not apply to mere naked or dry trustees, who practically have no interest in or power over the estate as trustees, to preserve contingent remainders. When the trustee has no duty to perform, as when one is trustee in fee for another in fee, having no authority over the estate, and standing in no relation of influence over the cestui que trust, the person named as trustee may purchase.” Perry on Trusts, sec. 199; Price v. Evans, 26 Mo. 39; Kennedy v. Keating, 34 Mo. 28. (2) In this case the title upon which the suit is based never was in the mortgagor, and hence was not conveyed to the trustees in the mortgage. It had passed to Patrick Hayes by the sheriff's deed. In all the cases referred to in defendant's brief, the trustees were in charge of the property, and took advantage of their position to effect the purchases, and, in each case, the title or interest acquired was an interest to which the cestui que trust was entitled, and hence are not applicable to this case. (3) The purchase at a sheriff's sale, though made by a trustee, is not invalid. It passes the legal title and the trust, if any exists, is not an express trust. At best it is an implied trust that must be declared by a direct proceeding. Waddell v. Williams, 50 Mo. 224.

Wallace Pratt and C. B. McAfee for respondent.

It was admitted by the pleadings and otherwise in the record, that the plaintiff, at the time he purchased the premises in controversy, was a trustee in a deed of trust, executed by this defendant to secure an issue of $200,000 of its bonds, and conveying all the property of the defendant, including that in controversy. If the plaintiff, by the purchase from Hayes, acquired any title to the premises in question, he cannot enforce it against the defendant. The relation of trustee and cestui que trust as to this property prohibits him. He can only hold the title he may have so acquired for the benefit of his cestui que trust, with the right to reimbursement under certain circumstances. 2 Perry on Trusts, sec. 749; Grumley v. Webb, 44 Mo. 444; Rae v. Copelin, 47 Mo. 76; Lais v. Sternberg, 50 Mo. 124; McAllen v. Woodcock, 60 Mo. 174; Sherwood v. Saxton, 63 Mo. 78; Roberts v. Mosely, 64 Mo. 507.

BLACK, J.

Ejectment for property in Greene county described as follows: “All that certain railroad and its appurtenances, beginning at a point in the city of Springfield and extending thence in a northwestern direction to Ash Grove, being about twenty miles.” The property sued for is a part of the road bed of the old Kansas City and Memphis railroad, a branch of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad. The “executive construction and managing committee” appointed, or rather confirmed, by the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, received subscriptions to a large amount to aid in the construction of the branch road, and one of its members expended over $200,000 in grading and masonry in the preparation of the road bed from Springfield, in Greene county, to Greenfield, in Dade county. Out of the twenty-two miles graded in Greene county the right of way was procured to the branch road for five miles only and that in detached parcels. This work was done in 1870, 1871 and 1872.

Nothing further appears to have been done in the way of construction by the branch road. A new corporation, The Kansas City and Memphis Railroad Company, was organized to build a road over the same route. The executive committee of the branch road in 1872 and 1873 assigned, or undertook to assign, and transferred to the new organization the property rights, subscriptions, etc., of the branch. The new company in April, 1875, conveyed the road bed to Shepard and others, who, in September of that year, sold the same to defendant, a corporation organized to build a road from Lamar in Barton county by the way of Greenfield to Springfield. Thereafter the defendant procured to itself the remainder of the right of way, repaired and completed the grading and masonry, tied, ironed and put the road in operation. To raise money to prosecute this work defendant, on the first of January, 1878, made a deed of trust on all of its property to James Baker, the plaintiff here, and Mr. Wells, to secure an indebtedness of which there is outstanding some $200,000. On July 28, 1876, James Hayes recovered a judgment against the Hannibal & St. Joe Railroad Company for $18,000 on account of a grading contract, to be levied only of the property of the branch road, the Kansas City and Memphis railroad. By virtue of an execution issued thereon these eighteen or twenty miles of said road bed sued for were sold to Patrick Hayes in November, 1876, and in February, 1879, he conveyed the same to the plaintiff. This was after the plaintiff became trustee for d...