Bridgeport-City Trust Co. v. First Nat. Bank & Trust Co. of Bridgeport

Citation200 A. 809,124 Conn. 472
CourtConnecticut Supreme Court
Decision Date30 June 1938
PartiesBRIDGEPORT-CITY TRUST CO. v. FIRST NAT. BANK & TRUST CO. OF BRIDGEPORT et al.
200 A. 809
124 Conn. 472

BRIDGEPORT-CITY TRUST CO.
v.
FIRST NAT. BANK & TRUST CO. OF BRIDGEPORT et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

June 30, 1938.


Case Reserved from Superior Court, Fairfield County; Arthur F. Ells, Judge.

Action by the Bridgeport-City Trust Company, as successor trustee of a trust created by Julia E. Stoddard, since deceased, against the First National Bank & Trust Company of Bridgeport, as trustee of a trust created by Sanford Stoddard, and others, for advice as to whether plaintiff may charge part of its fee for services against the principal of the trust fund. Reserved by the Superior Court for the advice of the Supreme Court of Errors.

Question reserved answered in the negative.

Argued before MALTBIE, C. J., and HINMAN, AVERY, BROWN, and JENNINGS, JJ.

Arthur M. Marsh and Norman K. Parsells, both of Bridgeport, for plaintiff. Lawrence A. Howard and Charles S. House, both of Hartford, for defendants other than Henry B. Stoddard. Louis H. Porter, Jr., of Stamford, amicus curias.

200 A. 810

HINMAN, Judge.

&gt

The question as to which advice is sought by this action is whether the plaintiff, a corporate trustee acting under the circumstances alleged in the substituted complaint and admitted by all the defendants, may charge against the corpus of the trust a portion of its annual fee for services. The trust here involved was created by a deed of trust dated December 13th, 1914, by Julia E. Stoddard, now deceased, conveying certain securities in trust to the Bridgeport Trust Company of which the plaintiff is the successor trustee. The deed provides that the trustee is to "hold, invest and reinvest" the corpus and pay over to the settlor's son Henry B. Stoddard "the net income thereof during his life"; upon his death the trustee is directed to pay the principal, share and share alike, to such of his children as survive him and, per stirpes, to the lineal descendants of any deceased child; failing children of Henry or lineal descendants of such children there is a substitutionary remainder to the settlor's son Sanford Stoddard, and if he be dead, to his children and the lineal descendants then living of any deceased child. If there be none of the foregoing remaindermen existing at Henry's death, there is a further substitutionary gift of the principal to The Bridgeport Hospital, On or about December 1st, 1937, Sanford Stoddard executed and delivered a trust deed to the defendant The First National Bank and Trust Company of Bridgeport conveying all of his right, title and interest under the Julia E. Stoddard trust to that bank as trustee. The plaintiff, as trustee of the Julia E. Stoddard trust, has rendered to Henry B. Stoddard and the trustee of the Sanford Stoddard trust an account covering the period from December 16th, 1936, to December 15th, 1937, in which it has made a charge of $341.40 for its services as trustee for that period, of which sum, although the income for the period amounted to $4,992.09, it has charged $104.30 against the principal of the trust and $237.10 against the income thereof.

The plaintiff has invested and reinvested the principal of the trust, and during the year covered by its account and theretofore has periodically considered and examined the assets composing the trust fund with respect to such investments and reinvestments, for the preservation and safety of the principal fund as well as for the protection of income therefrom in such measure and degree as was consistent with such preservation and safety. For this purpose the fund was placed under the personal supervision of a vice president and trust officer of the plaintiff, who has conferred...

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