Killoren v. Hernan Et Al‪.‬

RONAN, Justice. This bill is brought to exonerate from the lien of a pledge certain stocks, bank shares and a check, which were deposited by the plaintiff's intestate with the State Street Trust Company, hereinafter called the company, for the accommodation of the defendant Hernan. The intestate in October, 1929, pledged these securities, or others for which the present securities have been substituted, when the company had requested the defendant Hernan to furnish more security upon her loan account. She contends that this security was given to her by the intestate; that they had engaged upon a joint enterprise; that his estate is liable for a part of the losses sustained and that the estate is also indebted to her for damages which she incurred in following his advice and in relying upon his promise that, if she did not liquidate her account with the company, he would reimburse her for any loss she might suffer. The company contends that it has the right to hold the collateral, which was pledged by both the intestate and the defendant Hernan, for the satisfaction of her two outstanding notes; and that two paid-up shares of a co-operative bank and a check were included in this collateral. The master has set forth in his report numerous financial transactions of the intestate and the defendant Hernan with each other and with the company; their relationship, and engagement of marriage in 1928; his presents to her; the circumstances under which he pledged his property, and his purpose and intent in aiding her; their conversations with each other and with others concerning the collateral; the correspondence with the company respecting her account and the consequent conduct of both the intestate and the defendant Hernan in reference to her account; the acquisition by her of an accident policy as security to him for any loss that he might sustain on account of the pledge; the substitution of collateral and the Disposition of that which had been released; the various memoranda made by him concerning the collateral, which in some instances were written long after the events they purported to record; the failure of the intestate to require her to close the account; his changed attitude toward her during the last few years of his life; and the securing by her of a loan of $700 on the strength of the collateral held by the company, on the day following the death of the intestate, when she knew that he had died and knew that, if she informed the company of his death, 'she probably would not be allowed to increase her loan.' The activities of the intestate in dealing with the co-operative bank, which finally resulted in the issue of two paid-up shares and a check, both of which the company contends are included in the collateral, are fully narrated in the report. The case required careful weighing of evidence and accurate evaluation of testimony. The subsidiary findings of the master are numerous and apparently complete. They are consistent with each other and with the ultimate findings made by him. There is nothing in the report that would warrant our drawing any inferences that would support a Conclusion different from that reached by the master upon the facts reported by him. His Conclusions that the intestate made no gift of his collateral security to the defendant Hernan, that he did not agree to reimburse her for any losses she might suffer from continuing to carry the account, that the estate is not indebted to her, and that two shares of bank stock and the check are not held by the company as collateral, must be sustained. Dodge v. Anna Jaques Hospital, Mass., 17 N.E.2d 308. There was no error in confirming the master's report, nor in overruling the exceptions of the defendants which in the main were based upon alleged errors in findings of the master or upon his failure to make certain findings. Zuckernik v. Jordan Marsh Co., 290 Mass. 151, 194 N.E. 892; Morin v. Clark, Mass., 6 N.E.2d 830.