Heidelbach v. Campbell

Citations

• 95 Wash. 661
• 164 P. 247
• 1917 Wash. LEXIS 863

Syllabus

<p>Trusts — Trust Ex Maleficio — Commingled Funds — Right to Recovery. Where an assignor for the benefit of creditors unlawfully converted the proceeds of goods held on consignment for sale, and mingled the proceeds with his own funds, there is no trust ex maleficio by virtue of which the consignor would have a lien upon all of the assets of the insolvent or a right to moneys on deposit as a preferred creditor, where the trust money was used in the payment of the insolvent’s employees, expenses, other creditors, and in the general operation of its business, and its identity was lost; since the right of the trustee to pursue a fund depends upon the ability to trace the property, and not upon any right of lien.</p> <p>Same — Conversion of Trust Funds — Presumptions. In such ease there is no presumption that the trustee intended to use only what he had a right to use, in withdrawing money from the commingled funds, and that the balance remaining constitutes the trust fund, where it was stipulated that the money received by the trustee was used in the payment of the expenses of the business, etc., as this disproves the inference which would arise from the presumption as a matter of evidence only when the truth of the proposition was not otherwise established.</p> <p>Same — Right—Lien. Since the trust relation did not create a lien upon all the property of the insolvent, it did not create a lien upon property of like kind, whether the property he money or property of a different nature.</p>