trustee ex maleficio
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 293 U.S. 328 - Davis v. Aetna Acceptance Co. · 1934Most cited · 1,616 citing opinions
It is not enough that, by the very act of wrongdoing out of which the contested debt arose, the bankrupt has become chargeable as a trustee ex maleficio. He must have been a trustee before the wrong and without reference thereto.
How the Supreme Court has restated “trustee ex maleficio”
Each Supreme Court definition of “trustee ex maleficio,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “trustee ex maleficio”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “trustee ex maleficio” — 2,518 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1925–1940
- ORIGINAL
Dunn and Gillam, when they fraudulently acquired the Thomas lease by the corrupt action of the guardian, which action they actively induced, became trustees ex maleficio of the lease, and as such trustees they became equitably bound to hold the lease for the benefit of the ward or, in the event of a sale or other disposition of it, to hold its proceeds upon a like obligation.
To call the infringer an agent or trustee is not to state a fact but merely to indicate a mode of approach and an imperfect analogy by which the wrongdoer will be made to hand over the proceeds of his wrong.
To call the infringer a trustee ex maleficio merely indicates 'a mode of approach and an imperfect analogy by which the wrongdoer will be made to hand over the proceeds of his wrong'. He is in the position of one who has confused his own gains with those which belong to another.