Hayden v. Hayden

• Citation: 142 Mass. 448,8 N.E. 437
• Parties: HAYDEN v. HAYDEN and another, Trustees.
• Decision Date: 21 October 1886
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

142 Mass. 448

8 N.E. 437

HAYDEN
v.
HAYDEN and another, Trustees.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Hampshire.

October 21, 1886

COUNSEL [142 Mass. 451]

[8 N.E. 439] J.B. O'Donnell, for plaintiff.

D.W. Bond, for Trustees Smith Charities.

T.G. Spaulding, for Northampton Inst. for Savings.

Hill & Wainwright, pro se.

OPINION

[8 N.E. 440] C. ALLEN, J.

The plaintiff relies on the vote of the trustees of the Smith Charities passed on June 24, 1884, as creating an obligation to the principal defendant of which he might avail himself. The question arises out of the somewhat peculiar method adopted by the trustees of administering their trust in respect to the loan to the defendant. Instead of lending the money for a fixed term, not over five years, during which the beneficiary would know that he could have the use of it, [142 Mass. 452] the trustees took from him a note payable in five years, or on demand, at their own option; and, instead of making a loan of which, during its continuance, the beneficiary could make a beneficial use, the whole amount of the money lent was held in the savings bank as collateral security for its repayment, yielding a lower rate of interest than the beneficiary was required to pay to the trustees. Thus, the loan, instead of being a benefit to him, would be a burden, unless, at its maturity, the trustees should see fit to cancel and give up his note. If the note had been made payable at the end of five years, without the further provision making it payable on demand, at the option of the trustees, it is quite plain that they would have no authority to cancel or give it up before the end of the five years. This is fully covered by the decision in Smith Charities v. Northampton, 10 Allen, 498. In that case the trustees sought the instructions of this court as to their duty and power in respect to loans made by them, under the same clause of the will which authorized a loan to the present defendant, in cases where the borrowers died before the expiration of the terms for which the loans were made; and it was then assumed, both by the trustees in seeking instructions, and by the court in expounding the will, that, in the execution of their trust, the trustees would, as a matter of course, make loans only for fixed terms. It is not necessary for us, in the present case, to make a final determination of the question whether the trustees had any authority to make a loan upon the terms contained in...