Francis v. United Jersey Bank
New Jersey Supreme Court
432 A.2d 15, 87 N.J. 15, 432 A.2d 814 (1981)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Charles, Jr., and William Pritchard (sons) were directors of Pritchard & Baird Intermediaries Corp. (Pritchard & Baird), a reinsurance broker that controlled millions of dollars of client funds in an implied trust. The only other director was their mother, Mrs. Pritchard. The sons siphoned large sums of money from Pritchard & Baird in the form of “loans.” Eventually, the corporation went insolvent because of the siphoned funds. During the time the funds were misappropriated, Mrs. Pritchard did nothing in her role as director. She never went to the corporate office, never received or read financial statements, and knew nothing of the corporation’s business affairs. Her husband, the deceased founder of Pritchard & Baird, had actually warned her to watch out for the sons before he died. Mrs. Pritchard died, and the trustee in bankruptcy (representing the interests of many creditors) brought suit against the estate of Mrs. Pritchard (defendant) to recover the siphoned funds. Mrs. Pritchard’s estate appealed the ruling of the appellate court in favor of the trustee.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Pollock, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 803,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
