Grieves v. Keane

• Decision Date: 26 June 1901
• Citation: 49 A. 501,23 R.I. 136
• Parties: GRIEVES v. KEANE.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

49 A. 501

23 R.I. 136

GRIEVES

v. KEANE.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

June 26, 1901.

Exceptions from district court, Providence county.

Action by Ann Grieves against Thomas Keane. From a judgment charging Franklin P. Owen as trustee of defendant, the said Owen brings exceptions. Exceptions overruled.

Page & Page, for plaintiff.

Franklin P. Owen, in pro. per.

STINESS, C. J. The plaintiff in this case recovered a judgment against the defendant, and Franklin P. Owen was charged as trustee of said defendant, in the district court of the Sixth judicial district. The defendant did not answer the case, but the trustee files exceptions to the ruling of the court in charging him upon his affidavit. The affidavit set forth: "That at the time of the service on me of the copy of the writ in said case, for the purpose of attaching the personal estate of the said defendant in my hands and possession, there was in my hands and possession the sum of one hundred and twenty-five dollars, under the following circumstances: I was one of the counsel for Owen Trainor in the case against the Union Railroad Company for damages, and in the settlement of said case it was provided that the above sum be placed in my hands for the purpose of paying Dr. Thomas Keane for services rendered as a physician to said Owen Trainor on account of the injuries received in an accident caused by said Union Railroad Company. I have never received any authority from said Dr. Thomas Keane to receive said money, and therefore leave it to the court to say whether I am trustee for said Dr. Thomas Keane, and liable to garnishment in this case." It thus appears that Owen holds the money as trustee for Keane. Assuming that as to Keane it is a purely voluntary trust, since there is no evidence whether it was so placed with or without his knowledge and assent, nevertheless we think that the garnishee was properly charged. A trust was fully constituted in Owen by the transfer of the money as disclosed, and the Union Railroad Company could not by itself revoke it. In re Atkinson, 16 R. I. 413, 16 Atl. 712, 3 L. R. A. 392, 27 Am. St. Rep. 745; Ray v. Simmons, 11 R. I. 266, 23 Am. Rep. 447. In Stone v. King, 7 R. I. 358, 84 Am. Dec. 557, it was held that, unless the cestuis que trustent expressly reject the provisions of a trust for their benefit, they are presumed to accept them, and that this rule holds in Rhode Island in all cases. The acceptance of a trust by the beneficiary makes the trust...