Sanderson v. Milligan

OPINION

COOPER, Justice.

This action was prosecuted by James L. Milligan, Jr., the substitute trustee under the will of Willie Mae Sanderson, to gain possession of property located at 2717 Sand-erson Street in Knoxville. The chancellor found that legal title to the property was in the substitute trustee, but that petitioner, Ruth Sanderson, was entitled to possession of the premises for her lifetime under an oral trust. The Court of Appeals reversed the chancellor, citing the oft-quoted statement that an oral declaration of a trust by the settlor must be prior to or contemporaneous with a…