National Academy of Sciences v. Cambridge Trust Co

Facts

Troland was the widow of Leonard T. Troland. He left all of his real and personal property in trust with the Cambridge Trust Company bank with the net income of the trust, after expenses to be paid to or deposited to the account of his wife, Troland. He also provided that on his wife’s death or second marriage, the bank would transfer the trusteeship to the National Research Council of Washington, D.C. to constitute a trust to be known as the Troland Foundation for Research in Psychophysics. Troland remarried on February 13, 1945 and became Florence R. Flynn. She continued to receive disbursements from the bank. She instructed the bank to mail the payments in her same name to her brother-in-law (who was married to her sister.) Her sister would endorse them and forward them to Troland who bore a different name. Troland would endorse the checks as “Florence Troland” and return them to her sister who would deposit them in the bank. The bank did not learn of her remarriag e until December 25, 1967.