JAMES McGREGOR GRANT AND)
*M Y9
RONALD CAMERON GRANT (DE- APPELLANTS; FENDANTS)...................................
AND
OLIVIA MARY MACLAREN AND
RESPONDENTS; OTHERS (PLAINTIFFS) ...............
ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW BRUNS- WICK.
A court of probate has no jurisdiction over accounts of trustees under a will, and the passing of accounts containing items relating to the duties of both executors and trustees is not, so far as the latter are concerned, binding on any other court, and a court of equity, in a suitto remove the. executors and trustees, may investigate such accounts again and disallow charges of the trustees which were passed by the probate court.
The Supreme Court of Canada, on appeal from a decision that the said charges were properly disallowed, will not re-consider the items so dealt with, two courts having previously exercised a judicial discretion as to the amounts and no question of principle being involved.
A letter written by a trustee under a will to the cestuis que trust threatening in case proceedings are taken against him to make disclosures as to malpractices by the testator, which might result in heavy penalties being exacted from the estate, is such an improper act as to call for his immediate removal from the trusteeship.
APPEAL from a decision of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, reversing the ruling of the judge in equity on exceptions to a referee's report.
The defendants, the Grants, were executors and trustees under the will of John W. Nicholson, who had been a wholesale liquor dealer in the City of St. :-Sir Henry Strong C. J., and Fournier, Taschereau, and Sedgewick JJ.