<p>W. held certain realty in naked trust for certain cestuis, the only duty remaining for the trustee to perform being to convey the legal title to the cestuis. The cestuis made an agreement of sale of the realty. In a bill for specific performance brought by the cestuis against the purchaser:</p> <p>Held, that the purchaser should not be compelled to accept the title of the cestuis unless it was perfected by a conveyance from the trustee at the expense of the cestuis.</p>
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1878-01-05
How this case has been cited
Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently April 1914
8 state decisions
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.
¶1
That where an absolute interest is given to the
cestuis que trust,
without any control in the trustee, it is, as a general rule, alienable, is pretty well settled. Perry on Trusts, §§ 386-388 ; 1 Cruise Dig. *407, *843.
¶2
In the present case we cannot consider the estate as executed in the
cestui,
because the trustee has still a duty to perform,
i. e.
to convey the estate upon a certain event which, it is agreed, has happened.
¶3
Where the
cestui
has occupied for a long time, a court will, in some cases, direct a jury to presume a conveyance from the trustee, if necessary to perfect the legal title; and where a court would direct a jury to do it, the court may well act themselves upon the same presumption. 1 Cruise Dig. *415.
¶4
In the present case we do not think the circumstances would warrant acting upon any such presumption.
¶5
A decree may be made for a specific performance of an agreement to convey an equitable estate if it be so expressed in the agreement. Sugden Vend. & Pur. cap. 8, sec. 2, § 2. In the 8th Amer. ed., by Perkins, cap. 5, sec. 3, § 50.
¶6
But as in this case the agreement does not specify it to be an equitable estate, the purchaser is entitled, if he chooses, to have the estate perfected by a conveyance from the trustees, at the expense of the vendor, otherwise he ought not to be obliged to accept the title.
¶7
Note. — For a commentary on this case see Amer. Law Register, N. S., vol. 17, p. 561. September, 1878.
