The plaintiff allowed the trust fund to be in the hands of defendant, a co-trustee, who entrusted it to a broker, who embezzled part of it ; defendant was held entitled to con tribution, from plaintiff ; [1896] 2 Ch. 415.
Where one, at the request of another, un dertakes a trust for that other's benefit, he has generally been held entitled to be in demnified by the beneficiary personally, if the trust fund was insufficient, for any ex penses connected with the execution of the trust; L. R. 7 Ch. 395 ; L. R. 4 C. P. 36 ; and so in the case of calls, in liquidation of a company, in excess of the value thereof, if the beneficiary is sui juris; [1901] A. C. 118; a trustee who has honestly and faith fully paid out money for the beneficiary's benefit is entitled to indemnity ; Perry, Trusts, § 485.
One trustee may be held responsible for losses which he has enabled a co-trustee to cause, though there was no actual partici pation by him ; State v. Guilford, 18 Ohio 509 ; Taylor v. Benham, 5 How. (U. S.) 233, 12 L. Ed. 130. It is the duty of each trustee to carry out the trust, and a trustee cannot relieve himself of the duty by agreement with his co-trustees to look after only certain parts of the trust property ; Hayes v. Pratt, 147 U. S. 557, 13 Sup. Ct. 503, 37 L. Ed. 279.
A trustee may come into equity to ob tain advice and assistance in the execution of his trust ; Hill, Trust. 298.
A testamentary trustee may file a bill for instructions by the court in a case involving reasonable grounds of doubt as to the mean ing of the trust ; Mersman v. Mersman, 136 Mo. 244, 37 S. W. 909 ; Stephenson v. Nor ris, 128 Wis. 242, 107 N. W. 343 ; Jones v. Creamer, 32 Ohio Cir. Ct. 223 (under the Code). Instructions to a trustee will be giv en only on the present disposition of income when the time for a division of the principal has not arrived; Bailey v. Smith, 214 Mass. 114, 101 N. E. 62.
Where the legal estate is vested in trus tees, all actions at law relative to the trust property must be brought in their name, but the trustee must not exercise his legal powers to the prejudice of a cestui que trust, and third persons must take notice of this limi tation of the legal rights of a trustee ; 2 Vern. 197.
The trustee (and also his personal repre sentatives to the extent of any property re ceived from the trustee) is responsible in suit for any breach of trust, and will be compelled to compensate what his negli gence has lost of the trust estate. He is not only chargeable with the principal and income of the trust property he has received, but is liable for an amount eqnal to what, with good management, he might have re ceived; and this includes interest on a sum he has needlessly allowed to remain where it earned no interest ; 2 Beay. 430 ; 4 Russ. 195.
The rule as to the right of a trustee to contribution from his co-trustee for loss by a breach of trust for which both are equally to blame, does not apply where one of the trustees is also a cestui que trust and has received an exclusive benefit by the breach of trust ; in that case. the rule to be applied
is that under which the share or interest of a cestwi que trust who has assented to, and profited by a breach of trust has to bear the whole loss ; and the trustee who is a cestui que trust must, therefore, indemnify his co trustee to the extent of his share or interest in the trust estate, and not merely to the extent of the benefit he has received ; [1896] 1 Ch. D. 685.
A trustee is entitled to reasonable com pensation ; Jarrett v. Johnson, 116 Ill. App. 592 ; Urann v. Coates, 117 Mass. 41. The cases are so numerous and vary so much on their facts that no rule can be deduced within present limits. The orphans' court cannot divide commissions as between co trustees ; Greble's Estate (No. 1), 16 Pa. Super. Ct. 42. A trustee is entitled to com missions on income without filing an ac count ; Cook v. Stockwell, 206 N. Y. 481, 100 N. E. 131, Ann. Cas. 1914B, 491, affirming 144 App. Div. 895, 128 N. Y. Supp. 1119.
Commissions upon the corpus of a trust estate are never allowed except when the fund is in course of distribution; Bosler's Estate, 161 Pa. 457, 29 AU. 57; except under extraordinary circumstances ; id.
Trustees in control of real property under a will are liable in tort as individuals for their negligence in its management ; O'Malley v. Gerth, 67 N. J. L. 610; 52 Atl. 563; if liable at all, they are liable as individuals ; Moniot v. Jackson, 40 Misc. 197, 81 N. Y. Supp. 688. But it is held that they are not in such case liable to a passer-by by their servant's negligence in repairing a side walk ; Parmenter v. Barstow, 22 R. I. 245, 47 Atl. 365, 63 L. R. A. 227.
Where trustees have the power to conduct a business as if absolute owners of the prop erty, and without liability for the miscon duct of employ6s, the estate, and not the trustee, is liable for the negligent act of their driver in charge of a team employed in the business ; Prinz v. Lucas, 210 Pa. 620, 60 Atl. 309. Where a trustee carried on the testator's colliery, and, in so doing, let down the surface of the land and injured the building of an adjoining owner, it was held that, as the trustee was entitled to indemnity against the beneficiary, the plaintiff could collect from the estate direct the judgment he obtained against the trustee personally ; [1900] 1 Ch. 199.
Notice to a trustee is notice to the cestui qua trust; Brannon v. May, 42 Ind. 92. The addition of the word "trustee" to the signa ture of the drawer of a check constitutes such notice of a trust as to put the payee upon inquiry ; Marshall v. De Cordova, 26 App. Div. 615, 50 N. Y. Supp. 294.
A constituent or cestui quo trust may sue, and make his representative or trustee a de fendant, when the latter refuses after a rea sonable time to sue ; Brun v. Mann, 151 Fed. 145, 80 C. C. A. 513, 12 L. R. A. (N. S.) 154.