Mara v Browne

By a settlement made in 1875 on the marriage of the plaintiff, Ellen Jane Reeves [nee Walker], with Harold Reeves, certain securities belonging to the wife were transferred to trustees upon trust to invest and pay the income to the wife during the joint lives of herself and her husband for her separate use, without power of anticipation, and after her death, if the husband should survive, to pay the income to him during his life, and after the death of the survivor, upon the usual trusts for the children of the marriage, with an ultimate trust for the wife absolutely if she should survive her husband.

There was no express disposition of the income of the trust funds during the remainder of the wife's life after her husband's death.

It was arranged that James Walker should retire, and Arthur Robert Reeves (father of the actor Kynaston Reeves) be appointed in his place, and, as his solicitor, Hugh Browne obtained, in June 1884, an examination of the securities alleged by Bernard James to represent the trust funds.

This action was commenced on the 7th Nov. 1890 by Ellen Jane Mara and her two infant children, Arthur Robert Reeves and Marian Reeves, against Hugh Browne and Arthur Browne, to make them liable for the losses which had resulted from the investments on builders’ mortgages.

69), therefore, that neither of the defendants could be held liable as a constructive trustee, and that the appeal must be allowed, and the action dismissed with costs.