Estate of Armstrong

In the matter of the application for the settlement of the account of Robert Stevenson, as special administrator of the estate of Margaret Armstrong, deceased, the special administrator had no right to use the funds of the decedent as his own, nor to mingle them with his own funds, without clear authorization from her. It was his duty to keep them separate and intact and free from any liability such as he incurred in the use of his own moneys. He should have pursued with exactitude the instructions given as to them, or show that his act was ratified, with full knowledge on the part of the decedent of the nature of that act. *163 The evidence shows that the authority was to “loan out” the money, which seems to me to mean that he was to invest for her and to account therefor, and not to borrow it for his own purposes. Mrs. Armstrong reposed confidence in him to judiciously invest her funds, and this confidence was abused when he placed himself in the position of a debtor to her, without fully advising her of the risk she ran, and affording her an opportunity of knowing that he was subjecting her funds to hazard, and depriving her of the means of averting catastrophe to her fortune.…