fiduciary relation

Promoters of a corporation stand in a fiduciary relation to it to this extent at least, that they will be chargeable as trustees if they deal with it unconscionably or oppressively or in violation of a statute, unless the liability for such misconduct has been effectually released.

That relation existing between parties where one holds the character of a trustee or a character analogous thereto, such as an agent, guardian, or the like, and the person stands in such a position that he has rights and powers which he is bound to exercise for the benefit of the other person. 227 111. 387.

A relation subsisting between two persons in regard to a business, contract, or piece of property, or in regard to the general business or estate of one of them, of such a character that each must repose trust and confidence in the other and must exercise a corresponding degree of fairness and good faith. Out of such a relation, the law raises the rule that neither party may exert influence or pressure upon the other, lake selfish advantage of his trust, or deal with the subject-matter of the trust in such a way as to benefit himself or prejudice the other except in the exercise of the utmost good faith and with the full knowledge and consent of that other, business shrewdness, hard bargaining, and astuteness to take advantage of the forgetfulness or negligence of another being totally prohibited as between persons standing in such a relation to each other. Examples of fiduciary relations are those existing between attorney and client, guardian and ward, principal and agent, executor and heir, trustee and cestui que trust, landlord and tenant, etc. See Robins v. Hope, 57 Cal. 497 ; Thomas v. Whitney, 186 III. 225, 57 N. E. 808; Central Nat Bank v Connecticut Mut. It Ins. Co., 104 U. S. 68, 26 L. Ed. 693; Meyer v. Reimer, 65 Kan. 822, 70 Pac. 869; Studybaker v. Cofield, 159 Mo. 596, 61 S. W. 246.

Defined under Fiduoiary in Black's Law Dictionary.