TRUST FUNDS.

Observer, Volume 5, Issue 112, 4 November 1882, Page 116

TRUST FUNDS.

i^. Very serious privations are often entailed upon '^loiigVsuffering. expectants of a division of truafc ..^mcmies,- I . whose delays are mere trumped-up . reasons : on the part; of the trustee to avoid „ relinquishing his temporary enjoyment of means :- - supposed by him to be entirely at his own time of jdisposal; As a .salutary warning to such Mr /Justice' Field, and Mr Justice Stephen at the • !", Queen's Bench at Sheffield,, in July last, ; ■ entertained, a complaint- against a lawyer there, -for 'neglecting to pay over certain sums of money ..; which came into his hands as trustee. It was . ' argued on his behalf that the misconduct wa3 not as attorney, but only as trustee ; that no 'application had been made to him for the .'-money, and that restitution had been made ; but ■.'/ these .pleas were swept aside by the Judges, who ".both condemned the defendant's act as one of

. 'dishonesty,. in-, severe terms, Mr Justice Stephen -..' remarking that he could call to mind cases of poor > :criminals, who. had not had the advantage of "'•'. education, and belonging to an honourable pro- \ 'ifession — men who said they had stolen to satisfy their necessities, or had embezzled money in the

hope of being able to pay it back, and these cases differed from the present in nothing, except in -this; that here, the delinquent was a solicitor and 'a trustee, which ought to have made him more strictly honest. After such a comparison, the -: sentence of five year's suspension from professional ■practice appears singularly light. It is curious too,' that in all such cases as these, the name of .the offender is carefully kept secret, "In the

matter of attorney" being the recognised legal formula, though it is difficult to see why legal scoundrels should- not be publicly gibbeted in the same manner as lay offenders.