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Constructive trust

Black's Law Dictionary · Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

Black's Law Dictionary

A (rust raised by construction of law, or arising by operation of law, as distinguished from an express trust. Wherever the circumstances of a transaction are such that the person who takes the legal estate in property cannot also enjoy the beneficial interest without necessarily violating some established principle of equity, the court will immediately raise a constructive trust, and fasten it upon the conscience of the legal owner, so as to convert him into a trustee for the parties who in equity are entitled to the beneficial enjoyment. Hill, Trustees, 116; 1 Spence, Eq. Jur. 511. Nester v. Gross, 66 Minn 371, 69 N. W. 39; Jewelry Co. v. Volfer, 106 Ala. 205, 17 South. 525, 28 In RA. 707, 54 Am. St. Rep. 31.