- 10 - direction to the committee, its bailiff, to deliver property or pay money to the donee. It is precisely as if a donor in his right mind tells his agent in possession of his money to pay a specified sum to the donee. There is no gift until the money is turned over. [Id. at 833.] Finally, we disagree that, pursuant to Nebraska law, the date that the gifts were completed should be related back to the date that decedent's guardian-conservator conveyed the real property to C. Ronald Lambert and Charlotte Lambert as tenants in common. The Nebraska Supreme Court has defined a constructive trust as: “a relationship with respect to property subjecting the person by whom the title to the property is held to an equitable duty to convey it to another on the ground that his acquisition or retention of the property is wrongful and that he would be unjustly enriched if he were permitted to retain the property. * * * [Fleury v. Chrisman, 264 N.W.2d 839, 842 (Neb. 1978), quoting Box v. Box, 21 N.W.2d 868, 869 (Neb. 1946); emphasis supplied.] We read Fleury as providing a constructive trust in the property conveyed, not property the transferee has not received, i.e., in the instant case, decedent's other property that had not been conveyed. Moreover, we are not convinced, based on the record in the instant case, that C. Ronald Lambert, as decedent's guardian-conservator, wrongfully conveyed the real property to himself and his wife. Nonetheless, assuming arguendo that C. Ronald Lambert was unjustly enriched by that conveyance, the proper remedy would have been to reconvey the transferred realPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011