United States v. Webb

1 Citing case

  1. Edmondson v. Jones

    204 Ala. 133 (Ala. 1920)   Cited 66 times

    "Whenever the legal title to property, real or personal, has been obtained through actual fraud, misrepresentation, concealments, or through undue influence, duress, taking advantage of one's weakness or necessities, or through any other similar means or under any other similar circumstances which render it unconscientious for the holder of the legal title to retain and enjoy the beneficial interest, equity impresses a constructive trust on the property thus acquired in favor of the one who is truly and equitably entitled to the same, although he may never perhaps have had any legal estate therein; and a court of equity has jurisdiction to reach the property in the hands of the original wrongdoer or in the hands of a subsequent holder, until a purchaser of it in good faith and without notice acquires a higher right, and takes the property relieved of the trust." Kent v. Dean, 128 Ala. 600, 30 So. 543; Smith v. Smith et al., 153 Ala. 504, 45 So. 168. Under the doctrine of the foregoing cases, the respondent Edmondson and Castleberry, by acquiring property through fraud, as averred in the bill, are chargeable as trustees ex maleficio, and a court of equity will require them to account for the rents, income, and profits thereof, for the use and benefit of complainant, as well as divest them of the legal title and reinvest it in the complainant.