Kennedy v. Briere

Citations

• 45 Tex. 305

Syllabus

<p>1. Confederate money — Executor.—An executor was authorized, by will, to administer the estate without control of the Probate Court, and specially directed to have the estate inventoried, and to divide it equally in property or money,” it being also left to his discretion to make a just and equal partition between two legatees named in the will, “ either in kind or by sale, and partition of the proceeds;” under this authority the executor, in 1864, sold the property of the estate for Confederate money; in a suit by the legatees against the executor for the value of the estate : Held, Error to instruct the jury “that a person occupying a fiduciary relation (an executor occupies that relation) could not legally receive Confederate money in payment for property sold by such person.”</p> <p>2. Trustee, liability of. — If a trustee act strictly within the line of his duty, and does not exceed the limit of the discretion intrusted to him, and is guilty of no fraud, he cannot be held responsible for any loss which may occur to the trust estate by his acts.</p> <p>3. Money. — The word money, in its most strict and technical sense, means coined metal, usually gold or silver, upon which the Government stamp has been impressed to indicate its value, but in its more popular use it imports any currency, tokens, bank notes, or other circulating medium in general use as the representative of value.</p> <p>4. Same — trustee—construction.—Where a power was given to administer an estate and to divide it in property or money, in the discretion of the trustee, and the instrument conferring the power does not show in what sense the word money was used, it may be ascertained and inferred from the nature and character of the business to which it refers; the habits, usage, and general course of dealing; the situation of the country; the kind of circulating medium in ordinary use, and the sense in which the word is generally understood in business transactions at the time and in the loca