Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 1).pdf/107

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JASPER v. HAZEN.
83

ments, and we are satisfied the authorities do not warrant them. The elementary principles governing cases of this character will be found fully stated in Pom. Eq. Jur. §§ 1079, 1080, 1421. Johnson v. Johnson, 120 Mass. 466, was an action at law by a cestui que trust against the trustee’s executor to recover the amount due the cestui que trust as shown by the final account of the trustee duly filed and allowed. The action was sustained, the court saying: “It is well settled that a cestui que trust cannot bring an action at law against a trustee to recover for money had and received while the trust is still open; but when the trust has been closed and settled, the amount due the cestui que trust established and made certain, and nothing remains to be done but to pay over money, such an action may be maintained.” In Davis v. Coburn, 128 Mass. 382, it is said: “The plaintiff seeks to recover of the defendant as trustee under an express trust to invest and account for the proceeds of certain gold dust sent to him by the plaintiff's intestate. This trust was found by the judge who presided at the trial in the superior court to have been created and accepted. But it appeared in evidence that when the gold dust was received by the defendant the plaintiff's intestate was indebted to the defendant, and that no account has been rendered of the trust, and no settlement of the amount due under it has been made, either by computation or by adjustment. Under these circumstances, the only remedy for the cestui que trust is by a bill in equity. An action at law does not lie in his favor against the trustee while the trust is open.” In Norton v. Ray, 139 Mass. 230, the trustee of real estate conveyed the land contrary to the terms of the trust, and the cestui que trust sued at law for the value of the land so conveyed. The court held that plaintiffs only remedy was in equity, and that the case did not come within the decisions allowing actions at law for a liquidated sum due a cestui que trust. Wingate v. Ferris, 50 Cal. 105, has many points in common with this case. Plaintiff was the owner of a steamboat, claimed to be worth $10,000, which had been seized on legal process, and was about to be sold for a debt of $300. Defendant agreed to bid the property in, and hold it in trust for plaintiff, and allow plaintiff to redeem on paying the sum bid, with interest, and reason-