SRINIVASA MOORTHY Vs. VENKATAVARADA IYENGAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from the judgment of the Madras High Court in a suit for the administration of the trusts of the will of Venkatavarada Iyengar, who died on the 24th of August 1892, domiciled in the State of Mysore. The judgment under appeal affirmed in substance the decision of Moore J. sitting on the original side of the Court.

(2.) The appellant, who was the only son of the deceased, was one of the executors and trustees named in his will and sole residuary legatee. He joined in obtaining probate. He took upon himself the management of the estate and possessed himself of all the assets. For some years he acted in execution of the trusts of the will. Called upon to account and charged with various breaches of trust he now asserts that the will was wholly inoperative and that the entire estate was joint family property, and that it belongs to him in his individual capacity by right of survivorship.

(3.) To such a contention advanced under such circumstances it would be a sufficient answer to say that no person who has accepted the position of trustee and has acquired property in that capacity can be permitted to assert an adverse title on his own behalf until he has obtained a proper discharge from the trust with which he has clothed himself. But out of respect for the argument of Counsel at the Bar and the elaborate judgment in the Courts in Madras, it will be proper to deal shortly with the facts of the case and the grounds of the decision under appeal.