Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Subject_1Public Company
Subject_2Winding-up
Subject_3Trustee
Subject_4Presumed Acceptance of Office without Previous Consent.
Facts:

By antenuptial contract of marriage, dated 1st June 1874, between John Dodds and Miss Margaret Bordue, Robert Weir was, along with four others, nominated a trustee, and amongst other funds thereby specially assigned to the trustees was £200 of City of Glasgow Bank stock then standing in the name of Margaret Stenhouse Bordue in the books of the bank. She executed a transfer, which bore that she thereby transferred the same to and in favour of the five trustees “and to their assigns and successors whomsoever;” and further, that the five trustees (naming them) accepted of the transfer on the terms and conditions therein mentioned. The transfer was not signed by Weir, only by the other four trustees; and a letter or mandate which was handed to the bank requesting them to issue the dividend warrants in name of, and to transmit them to, Mrs Dodds, was also signed by the same four only. At the time when the marriage contract and the transfer were executed, Weir was in Spain, having gone there early in 1874, and not having returned till the end of June of the same year. Up to the date of the

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marriage he had never given his consent to becoming a trustee, or to having stock of any kind transferred to his name. Shortly after the marriage he was made aware by one of the trustees that he had been nominated a trustee under the marriage-contract. A few weeks afterwards, on 27th August 1874, he signed a dividend warrant in respect of certain Clydesdale Bank stock, being part of Mrs Dodds' trust estate, adding to his signature the word “trustee.” On 29th December 1874, in obedience to a circular sent by their law-agent, he attended a meeting of the trustees, and the minute of that meeting bore that the trustees formally accepted office, and further that a schedule of the stocks belonging to the trust estate, among which was the £200 stock of the City of Glasgow Bank, had been laid before them. The minute was signed by Weir some time after the meeting was held. Weir, whose name appeared on the register of the bank, was at the failure of the bank put upon the list of contributories.

In the above circumstances the Court refused a petition at his instance for removal from the list, on the ground that by his actings subsequent to the marriage he had clearly accepted the post of trustee, and that he must be presumed to have known that the names of the trustees would appear upon the register as holders of the various stocks in question, and must have agreed thereto.