Gaudens v. Southeast Bank, N.A.

FERGUSON, Judge.

The main question presented is whether a co-trustee/bank, which relinquishes trust property to the agent of the co-trustee/beneficiary on the strength of a familial relationship and prior course of dealings between the agent and trustee/beneficiary, may' still be liable for the agent’s conversion of the trust property where it is not discovered until after the loss that the agent had actual authority to manage the trust property by virtue of a recorded general power of attorney.

Mrs. St. Gaudens, the appellant, is an eighty-six-year-old widow living in Dade County. Thirty-three…