Jones v. Jones

• Decision Date: 08 April 1937
• Citation: 297 Mass. 198,7 N.E.2d 1015
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
• Parties: JANET H. JONES & another v. BRADFORD JONES & others.

297 Mass. 198

7 N.E.2d 1015

JANET H. JONES & another v. BRADFORD JONES & others.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Norfolk.

April 8, 1937

April 7, 1936.

Present: RUGG, C.

J., PIERCE, FIELD & DONAHUE, JJ.

Jurisdiction. Probate Court, Jurisdiction, Proceedings in equity, Parties Decree, License to sell real estate.

Equity Jurisdiction, To enforce trust, Rescission, Mistake. Trust Constructive, Accounting by trustee, Powers of trustee Compromise of claim. Equity Pleading and Practice, Parties. Contract, Consideration, Rescission. Devise and Legacy, Omitted child. Fiduciary.

The question, whether a certain petition in equity was within the jurisdiction of the Probate Court, was open in this court although no appeal was taken from an interlocutory order overruling a demurrer by which that defence was raised and the question of jurisdiction was not raised in a report to this court.

A probate court had jurisdiction, under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 215, Section 6, of a petition in equity, brought by a beneficiary of a testamentary trust against the trustee and another beneficiary, to compel the respondent beneficiary to return to the trustee an alleged improper payment made to him by the trustee; and the petitioning beneficiary was a proper party to bring such a proceeding. A decree of a probate court authorizing a trustee to sell real estate and to

"apply the proceeds thereof according to law and said instrument" was not an adjudication of the correctness of a recital, contained in the petition for license to sell, relating to the proportionate ownership of the proceeds.

It was not a breach of trust for the trustee to compromise a claim made against him, even without a decree of court, if he acted in good faith and with sound discretion.

A petition in equity by two beneficiaries of a testamentary trust to charge a third beneficiary as a constructive trustee of money alleged to have been improperly paid to him by the testamentary trustee, and to compel him to return the payment to the trustee, could not be maintained where it appeared that the payment was supported by sufficient consideration, and that the respondent and the trustee acted in good faith and without breach of any fiduciary duty. Circumstances of a claim by a child under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 191, Section

20, to an intestate portion of his mother's real estate did not require a finding that it was vexatious or frivolous or asserted in bad faith or without an honest and reasonable belief in its validity; and its surrender was a sufficient consideration to support a compromise payment to the child by a trustee under the will in possession and claiming ownership of the real estate.

A claimant in negotiating a compromise with trustees, one of whom was his stepmother and the other an experienced attorney, was not guilty of any breach of fiduciary duty to his stepmother by failing to disclose to her matters of fact and of probate record known by the other trustee.

That a contract was entered into by one party by reason of a mistake of fact on his part did not warrant rescission of the contract nor impose a constructive trust upon property received under it by the other party where it did not appear that the other party contributed to or knew of such mistake or was himself mistaken.

PETITION IN EQUITY, filed in the Probate Court for the county of Norfolk on February 19, 1935.

The petition was heard by McCoole, J., who found facts and reserved and reported the case to this court.

A. W. Blakemore, for the petitioners. R. B. Heavens, for the respondent Bradford Jones.

FIELD, J. This is a petition in equity brought in the Probate Court. The petitioners are Janet H. Jones and Margery Jones respectively widow and daughter of Everett Jones, deceased, beneficiaries of a trust created by the will of said Everett Jones. The respondents are Bladford Jones -- son of Everett Jones by a marriage prior to his marriage to Janet H. Jones -- also a beneficiary of said trust, and the trustees of said trust -- the petitioner Janet H. Jones, and Frank H. Winter -- appointed under said will by the Probate Court. The petition alleges an improper payment to the respondent Bradford Jones of property of the trust by the trustees thereof, said Janet H. Jones and Louis E. Flye, now deceased -- who was succeeded in the trust by the respondent Frank H. Winter -- and contains prayers for specific relief in various forms and a prayer for general relief. The respondent trustees filed answers. The respondent Bradford Jones demurred to the petition on the grounds that "if the payment alleged was made the trustees must account for it in their accounts and this court has no jurisdiction in equity to entertain matters involving items of probate accounts until the accounts have been allowed," that the "propriety of the payment from the estate as alleged is a matter to be settled on the accounts," and that the "plaintiffs have full, complete and adequate remedy through adjudication of the probate accounts." This respondent, also, without waiving his demurrer, filed an answer. The demurrer was overruled. No appeal was taken from the order overruling the demurrer. The probate judge then made findings of fact and reserved and reported "all questions of law therein for consideration of the full court." G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 215, Section 13. The pleadings and the findings of fact are made a part of the report.

The findings of fact include the following: Elizabeth C. Lowe was the owner of a certain parcel of land at 1658 Beacon Street, Brookline. She married Everett Jones on June 1, 1900. Thereafter she bought with her own money a parcel of land at 1664 Beacon Street, Brookline. Her husband, with his own money, built a house on each of these parcels. Mrs. Jones died in 1908. By her will, dated July 12, 1902, which was duly allowed, she gave all her property to her husband. Their only child, the respondent Bradford Jones, was born March 5, 1904. On November 7, 1911, Everett Jones married the petitioner Janet H. Jones. They had one child, the petitioner Margery Jones, born December 7, 1912. Everett Jones died April 25, 1919. By his will, after giving certain legacies, he gave the residue of his property, with a power of sale, to trustees therein named to pay the income thereof in equal shares to his wife and two children with further provisions for payment of income if his wife should remarry, and provisions for distribution of the principal. See Flye v. Jones, 283 Mass. 136 . The executors of this will and subsequently the trustees thereunder inventoried both parcels of real estate above described as the property in fee of the testator.

A claim was made upon the trustees in behalf of the respondent Bradford Jones "that he was entitled to an intestate portion of said real estate left by his mother." Following negotiations with the trustees "an agreement was entered into which was never put in writing but was evidenced by two deeds which were executed" by Bradford Jones. By one of these deeds dated August 27, 1925, he purported to convey to the trustees all his right, title and interest in the real estate at 1664 Beacon Street. By the other deed, of the same date, he purported to convey to the trustees his "two undivided third parts" of the real estate numbered 1658 Beacon Street, upon trust, however, that "the Trustees and their successors will not sell the said property without at first obtaining in writing the consent of the said Bradford Jones, or his heirs, executors, or assigns," and that "when the above described property is sold, the net proceeds of the two undivided third parts . . . shall be paid to the said Bradford Jones, or his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns." The Probate Court granted a license to sell the real estate on November 3, 1930, and on the sale thereof the trustees paid the respondent Bradford Jones "the sum of $15,384 less loans and charges then standing against him, this sum being reckoned as two-thirds interest in the sale price of 1658 Beacon Street."

The respondent Bradford Jones "is not of financial ability to repay the amount paid him out of the proceeds of the sale of the Beacon Street property." Items representing the payment of $15,384 by the trustees to the respondent Bradford Jones were included in an account filed in the Probate Court and a hearing has been had on this and other accounts of the trustees, but it does not appear that they have been allowed. The probate judge states in his finding of facts: "An adjudication of said accounts as they stand would not entitle these petitioners to an order ordering Bradford Jones to refund to the trust fund the aforesaid $15,384."

The petition contains prayers that "the indebtedness of this respondent Bradford Jones to the said trustees . . . in the sum of $15,384 and interest thereon be determined and adjudicated," that the respondent trustees "be ordered to charge the amount claimed above against said Bradford Jones against the income of and principal of said estate of Everett Jones otherwise payable to Bradford Jones up to the amount which may be found to be due," and that these trustees "be ordered to reach and apply the interest of Bradford Jones under the estate of Everett Jones to the full payment of said sum of $15,384 and interest."

No argument or brief is presented in behalf of the respondent trustees. The respondent Bradford Jones (hereinafter referred to as the respondent) contends that the petition cannot be maintained and, more specifically, that the Probate Court had no jurisdiction thereof. The petitioners argue that the contention that the Probate Court was without jurisdiction is not open on this report, but that if open it is without merit and that, on the facts found, they are...