Marcellus v. First Trust & Deposit Co.

Lehman, Ch. J.

The plaintiff expressly conferred upon the defendant, as trustee, power to invest the trust fund in “ first mortgages on improved real estate in the City of Syracuse ”. In the exercise of that power the trustee was under a duty to refrain from placing itself in a position in which its own interests might conflict with the interests of the cestui que trust. It might not as trustee purchase from itself securities which it owned. That is true even though in fact the trustee may have been guided solely by the interests of the cestui uninfluenced by its own conflicting interest.…