Dennis v. Rhode Island Hospital Trust Co F.2d 893

Facts

The plaintiffs are the beneficiaries of a trust created under a will. The trust property consisted of buildings that were constructed before the beginning of the century in an area where the value of the property has declined markedly over the last thirst years. The trustee failed to keep up the buildings, renovate them, modernize them, or take other reasonably obvious steps that might have given the remainder men property roughly capable of continuing to produce a reasonable income. The trustees did not appraise the trust property nor keep proper records. It made no formal or informal accounting in 55 years. There was no evidence in the record that the trust’s officers focused on the problem or consulted real estate experts about it or made any further rehabilitation efforts. The trustee did little more than routinely agree to the request of the trust’s income beneficiaries that it mange the trust corpus to produce the larges possible income. The plaintiff’s expert w itness stated that the suburban flight that led to mid 1950s downtown decline began before 1950; its causes (increased household income; more cars; more mobility) were apparent before 1950.