Clark v. Clark

Decided November 15, 1871

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1871-11-15

Trustee process. The defendant was defaulted, in the superior court, and the Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, who were summoned as trustees, made answer that they had in their possession $628, deposited by Betsey Abbott and credited on their books to her as trustee for the defendant. William H. Carter, administrator of the estate of Betsey Abbott, appeared as claimant.

Relies on Brabrook v. Boston Five Cents Savings Bank

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1871-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently December 1943

1 federal appellate · 23 state decisions — followed in 10 states

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Chapman, C. J.

¶1The case of Brabrook v. Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, 104 Mass. 228, is decisive of this case. The money originally belonged to Betsey Abbott, and was deposited in the bank by her; and though she deposited it in the name of “Betsey Abbott, trustee of Ann Clark,” yet she retained the book of deposit, and gave Ann Clark no notice of what she had done, nor did she know it till after Betsey Abbott’s death. By one of the by-laws of the bank, no one could draw any part of the money without producing the bank book. Even if the plaintiff could prove that she intended to create a trust, she did not do what was necessary to carry the intent into effect. Ann Clark was not a party to the transaction, and never acquired any title to the money; and upon the death of Betsey Abbott it passed to her administrator.

¶2Judgment for the claimant.