Exch. Trust Co. v. Doudera
| Decision Date | 04 February 1930 |
| Citation | 270 Mass. 227,170 N.E. 73 |
| Parties | EXCHANGE TRUST CO. v. DOUDERA. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from Probate Court, Suffolk County; Arthur W. Dolan, Judge.
Suit between the Exchange Trust Company, trustee under the will of Paul Abel, and Florence M. Doudera. From a decree charging the trustee with a certain sum on its first account, the trustee appeals. Affirmed.C. C. Barton and G. W. Tibbetts, both of Boston, for appellant.
This is an appeal by the trustee under the will of Paul Abel from a decree of the probate court charging it with $7,500 on its first account-the ‘difference between the amount actually received from the sale of real estate and the amount which should have been received save for the negligence of the accountant in the administration of the trust and in the conduct of the sale.’
The trustee was appointed May 20, 1916, succeeding a former trustee, one Fotch, deceased. The will gave power to the trustees to sell at public or private sale ‘at their discretion’ the real estate or any part thereof and to pay the net rents and income to the wife of the testator during her life and at her decease ‘to sell the property and real estate then remaining and divide the proceeds' among the parties mentioned in the will. The real estate in question was on Lamartine street, Jamaica Plain, near the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad location. The buildings were of wood and consisted of a barn, two double three-tenement houses, and a house with a store on the ground floor and two apartments overhead. The apartments each had four or five rooms, mainly heated with stoves, and with comparatively no modern improvements. When the testator died in 1904, the real estate was appraised at $27,500, subject to the mortgage of $12,000. In the inventory filed by the present trustee it was appraised at $18,000, subject to a mortgage of $12,000. It was sold in 1920 for $20,000.
There was evidence tending to show that the property was in a rundown condition; that it was difficult to secure tenants for it; that the apartments were frequently vacant; that it would require considerable expense to put the property in shape and it was a wise discretion to sell it; and that the best price the trustee could obtain was $20,000. There was also evidence that in 1920, when the property was sold, real estate in the locality where it was situated was increasing in value; that the fair market value of the property was from $30,000 to...
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