In Re Heidenreich

85 Misc. 2d 135, 378 N.Y.S.2d 982 (1976)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Testatrix created a trust, part of the assets of which consisted of stock in a bank. Testatrix's daughter had a life interest in the trust income. Upon her death, the corpus was to be distributed equally among the daughter's three children. Testatrix's will provided that the trustee was authorized to retain any trust property, regardless of how it was acquired. At the time of the daughter's death, two of the children were still minors. Ultimately, due to a merger of two banks after Testatrix's death, and several exchanges, the stock in the trust was that of Franklin National Bank (D). Subsequently, D was appointed successor trustee. As trustee, D periodically reviewed the trust assets and decided to retain the stock. Later, trading of the stock was suspended; at the time suit was filed it had no value. The guardian ad litem of the minor remainder beneficiaries of the trust (P) filed this action, claiming that the trustee breached its fiduciary duty by retaining its own stock in the trust despite a conflict of interest, and requesting that the trustee be surcharged.