Attorney General v. Illinois Agricultural College

Citations

• 85 Ill. 516

Syllabus

<p>1. Trusts—equity jurisdiction to carry out the purpose of the trust. Where property and funds are given by the State to a corporation, in trust, to carry out a certain object, a court of equity, having jurisdiction of trusts and trust property, may, in case of its waste or perversion, or on account of the inability or indisposition of the trustee to execute the trust, seize the property or fund, and place it in the hands of a trustee who will execute the trust.</p> <p>2. A court of equity has the power, and will, in a proper case, pursue a trust fund and restore it to its original purpose, into whosesoever hands it may come, unless held by innocent purchasers without notice. If disposed of, and the proceeds reinvested in other property, the trust will attach to the latter.</p> <p>3. Where it was shown, on a bill filed by the Attorney General on behalf of the State, that the Illinois Agricultural College had wasted and squandered the property donated to it by the State for the purpose of maintaining an agricultural college, and that the directors had shown themselves either unable or unwilling to discharge the trusts assumed, it was held, error to dismiss the bill seeking to take the property from the directors and to enforce the trust.</p> <p>4. Illinois Agricultural College—statute relating to, construed. The amendment to the charter of the Illinois Agricultural College, of February 12, 1807, providing that the directors shall be permitted to impart instruction in all the branches taught in similar institutions in any of the States, does not release them from the duty imposed in their charter of imparting knowledge of practical agriculture and the mechanic arts. It may enlarge their powers, but does not diminish them.</p> <p>6. Costs—against the State. It is error to decree that the State,shall pay the costs of a suit brought in its behalf, and it is equally so to decree costs against the Attorney General, in a suit brought in his official capacity on behalf of