Steele v. Clark

Citations

• 77 Ill. 471

Syllabus

<p>1. Trust—assuming djbt of another does not create a trust, to take ease, out of the Statute of Limitations. Where a party, on the purchase of land, assumed and agreed with the grantor to pay a certain debt which the latter owed to a third person, it was held, in an action by the administrator of such third person against the estate of the party assuming the payment of the debt, the Statute of Limitations being pleaded, that the transaction did not create any trust so as to prevent the Statute of Limitations from barring the action, or such as would give a court of equity jurisdiction.</p> <p>2. Same—to give equity jurisdiction. A court of equity has jurisdiction in all cases of strict trust, but where a mere confidence is reposed, or a credit given, it will not exercise such jurisdiction.</p> <p>3. Where property is conveyed, or given by one person to another to hold for the use of a third person, such a trust will he thereby created as to give a court of equity jurisdiction to compel the application to the purposes of the trust. But the sale of land by the owner to pay his debts, which the purchaser assumes to pay, does not create a trust, as between him and the creditors of the vendor. It creates the relation of debtor and creditor, and nothing more.</p> <p>4. Party at law—person for whose benefit a promise is made may sue. It has been settled, by repeated decisions of this court, that, in case of simple contracts, the person for whose benefit a promise is made may maintain an action in his own name upon it, although the consideration does not move from him.</p> <p>5. Trust fund—money in hands of commissioner. Money' in the hands of a commissioner appointed to sell lands on decree for partition, is a trust fund, and if he pays, the same to a brother of the party entitled to receive the same, without any authority', he will be liable to the person entitled to it, or to his personal representative in case of his death, and it seems that- the Statute of Limitation