Stanes v Parker
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 23 March 1846 |
| Date | 23 March 1846 |
| Court | High Court of Chancery |
English Reports Citation: 50 E.R. 392
ROLLS COURT
S. C. 10 Jur. 603.
392 STANES V. PARKER 9BBAV.18S. [385] stanes . parker. March 23, 1846. [S. C. 10 Jur. 603.] A trustee who was a solicitor, came to a final settlement of accounts with his cestuis que trust, and thereupon a general release was executed. In the accounts, the trustee had taken credit for bills of costs for professional services, to which, under the general rule, he was not entitled. The cestuis que trust were assisted on the occasion by an independent solicitor, who perused the bills, and settled and attested the release. Held, under the circumstances, that the trustee was entitled to the benefit of the release. William Clachar devised estates to trustees, on trust for the separate use of his òdaughter Sarah Stanes, and after her death on trust to sell and hold the produce for her children. The testator died in 1813, and one of the executors and trustees having renounced, the Defendant Parker, a solicitor who had acted for the testator in his lifetime, was in February 1814 appointed a trustee in his stead. Sarah Stanes died in 1834, leaving three children, viz., the two Plaintiffs and Sarah J. Stanes, one of the Defendants. The estates were sold by the Defendant [386] Parker, and the produce òdivided among the three children. The affairs of the trust were finally wound up, the accounts were settled, and, in November 1837, a general release was executed by the Plaintiffs to Parker. In the accounts, the Plaintiffs were charged by the Defendant Parker with two bills of costs Amounting to £544 and JE512 for professional business transacted by the Defendant while trustee. This bill, filed in November 1839, sought, notwithstanding the settlement of the accounts and release, to have the accounts opened, and the professional charges of the Defendant, beyond costs out of pocket, disallowed, but all the relief, except the disallowance, was abandoned at the hearing. The circumstances attending the release and settlement of the accounts were admitted to be, substantially, as follows:-In October 1837 the Defendant Parker òclaimed the two bills of costs for business done in relation to the testator's estate, and on the 20th of that month he delivered the first bill, amounting to £554, to Messrs. Pattison & Cutts (the Plaintiffs' solicitors), for their perusal on behalf of the Plaintiffs. Messrs. Pattison & Cutts perused such bill (after the same had been by them submitted to...
To continue reading
Request your trial