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Analysis Under Pre-Georgia Trust Act Law
For the reader’s convenience, we set out here once again the
relevant Georgia statutory provision (Ga. Code Ann. sec. 53-12-26
(1982)) as in effect prior to adoption of the Georgia Trust Act:
53-12-26. Events and conditions giving rise to implied
trust.
A trust is implied:
(1) Whenever the legal title is in one person
but the beneficial interest, either from
the payment of the purchase money or from
other circumstances, is either wholly or
partially in another;
(2) Where, from any fraud, one person obtains
the title to property which rightly belongs
to another;
(3) Where, from the nature of the transaction,
it is manifest that it was the intention of
the parties that the person taking the legal
title should have no beneficial interest * * *
It has been stated that implied trusts arising under the
first and third classifications in the statute above are
generally considered resulting trusts, while those arising under
the second classification are generally considered constructive
trusts. See Estate of Spruill v. Commissioner, 88 T.C. at 1217,
(citing Hancock v. Hancock, 54 S.E.2d 385, 389 (Ga. 1949)). As
previously noted, however, the statute itself does not
distinguish between resulting trusts and constructive trusts–-a
distinction that is often difficult but ordinarily unnecessary
under this statute since “both are implied trusts and are
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