New England Merchants National Bank v. Old Colony Trust Co.

This is an action brought against the trustees of a Massachusetts business trust with transferable shares (G. L. c. 182) and their transfer agent by which the plaintiff seeks to recover certain liquidating dividends which the trust declared and paid on its common and preferred shares in 1960 and 1964 in the course of winding up its affairs. The case was submitted on a statement of agreed facts 2 to a judge of the Superior Court, who found for the defendants. The plaintiff appealed from the ensuing judgment.

The agreed facts may be summarized as follows. On December 24, 1931, one Francis A.…