Claughton v. Bear Stearns & Co.

Opinion by

Me. Justice Benjamin R. Jones,

This appeal involves a question of the fidelity and loyalty to its principal of a stock brokerage concern which acted as agent for a decedent’s estate in the sale of a large block of the common stock of a railroad company.

*483Edward Claughton upon his decease in Florida on May 10, 1955 was the owner of 509,500 shares of the common stock of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company (herein called MKT).1 At the time of his death 502,200 of these shares (non-income producing) were pledged to twelve banks and brokers to secure a total indebtedness of over…