Mullane, Special Guardian, v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., Trustee, et al. (339 U.S. 306)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 24, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 339 U.S. 306 · 70 S. Ct. 652
- Docket
- No. 378
- Argued
- February 8, 1950
- Decided
- April 24, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 7–1
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Black
- Dissenting
- Justice Burton (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mk. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. This controversy questions the constitutional sufficiency of notice to beneficiaries on judicial settlement of accounts by the trustee of a common trust fund established under the New York Banking Law. The New York Court of Appeals considered and overruled objections that the statutory notice contravenes requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment and that by allowance of the account beneficiaries were deprived of property without due process of law. 299 N. Y. 697, 87 N. E. 2d 73. The case is here on appeal under 28 U. S. C. § 1257. Common trust fund legislation is addressed to a problem appropriate for state action. Mounting overheads have made administration of small trusts undesirable to corporate trustees. In order that donors and testators of moderately sized trusts may not be denied the service of corporate fiduciaries, the District of Columbia and some thirty states other than New York have permitted pooling small trust estates into one fund for investment administration. The income, capital gains, losses and expenses of the collective trust are shared by the constituent trusts in proportion to their contribution. By this plan, diversification of risk and economy of management can be extended to those whose capital standing alone would not obtain such advantage. Statutory authorization for the establishment of such…
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