Feder v. Luster

The circuit court of Cook County entered a judgment which directed the defendant, Julian J. Luster, as executor of the estate of Samuel Feder, to prepare and file an individual accounting for the rents and profits collected by him from certain real property located in Evanston, Illinois, and to pay the moneys available after such accounting to Betty E. Feder as the trustee of four trusts which had been created for the benefit of her four children. This judgment was affirmed by the appellate court, with one judge dissenting (2 Ill. App.3d 28), and we granted the defendant's petition for leave to appeal. Samuel Feder, the testator, at the time of his death was the sole beneficiary of a land trust under which the trustee, Cosmopolitan National Bank of Chicago (Cosmopolitan) held the legal title to real property at 615-621 Howard Street in Evanston. The trust provided that Feder as beneficiary had a power of direction as to the title of the real estate and had a right to manage it and receive the proceeds from the rental or sale of the property. The right of Feder was declared to be deemed personal property and was to be assignable by him. The trust provided that in the event of death his rights and interests under the trust would pass to his executor or administrator. Upon Samuel Feder's death, the defendant, as the executor of Feder's estate, took possession of the property at 615-621 Howard Street and collected the rents, which rents were the subject of a petition brought by the plaintiff, Paul Feder, in the circuit court of Cook County. The plaintiff, the son of Samuel Feder and the husband of the trustee, Betty E. Feder, filed the petition, asking that the defendant, as executor, be required to account to Betty Feder for the rents and profits from the Howard Street property from the time of the death of Samuel Feder and to distribute to her as trustee all funds which such an accounting might show to be on hand.