Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co.

Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co.
N.E.2d 73 (1949), reversed.
Holding
Notice of judicial proceedings must be reasonably calculated to reach those who are known to be affected by such proceedings.
Court membership
Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson Associate Justices Harold H. Burton Tom C. Clark · Sherman Minton
Case opinions
Majority	Jackson, joined by Vinson, Black, Reed, Frankfurter, Minton, Clark
Dissent	Burton
Douglas took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV, New York State Banking Law §100-c

Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306 (1950), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States set forth the constitutional requirements for notice of judicial proceedings to a potential party under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.^[1]

Background

Section 100-c of the New York State Banking Law provided for the pooling of small

of one such common trust fund.

Facts and procedural history

The common trust fund at issue in this case was established on January 17, 1946, and §100-c provided for an accounting of each fund to be undertaken twelve to fifteen months after the establishment of a fund, and then for every three years thereafter.

In March 1947, Central Hanover petitioned the

, with combined gross capital assets of nearly three million dollars.

The only notice of the settlement proceedings required by §100-c to be given to the trusts' beneficiaries was that after filing such petition for judicial settlement of its account the petitioner shall cause to be issued by the court in which the petition is filed and shall publish not less than once in each week for four successive weeks in a newspaper to be designated by the court a notice or citation addressed generally without naming them to all parties interested in such common trust fund and in such estates, trusts or funds mentioned in the petition, all of which may be described in the notice or citation only in the manner set forth in any related court order and without setting forth the residence of any such decedent or donor of any such estate, trust or fund. When the fund had just been started, however, Central Hanover sent notice by mail of the future proceedings. Subsequent notice in its paper included only the name of the trust, the date of establishment and the estates in the trust. The names of beneficiaries were not included. Appellant Kenneth Mullane was appointed special guardian and attorney for those parties known or unknown who had any interest in the income of the fund, and James N. Vaughan was appointed to represent those parties with interest in the principal.

Mullane

.

Majority opinion

Justice

actions. Mullane had argued that this was essentially an in personam action, and that the Surrogate could not exercise jurisdiction on out-of-state residents upon whom personal service had not been made.

Jackson did not explicitly determine what type of jurisdiction was being exercised here, but held that the Fourteenth Amendment applied to all of them regardless of how the state classified the action. The beneficiaries'

agate type

on the back pages. In this case, the legal notice at issue did not even mention the names of the beneficiaries. Furthermore, under normal circumstances, property holders are directly aware of legal proceedings regarding their property, either directly or through a caretaker. But in this case, the caretaker was the beneficiaries' adversary - the trustee itself - which could not be expected to give them reasonable notice, and the special guardian was also not required to give notice.

Jackson held that notice must be "reasonably calculated" to inform known parties affected by the proceedings. Thus, §100-c(12), the section of the statute which dealt with notice to beneficiaries, was unconstitutional. He further held that notice by publication was acceptable for missing or unknown parties, for those whose whereabouts could not be ascertained by due diligence, and for those whose future interests were too conjectural to be known with any certainty. However, Jackson noted that in many cases, notice to the known parties would help the information of the proceedings to reach those who were unknown by the trustee.

Dissent

Justice

wrote a brief dissent, remarking that since the states created legislation creating the common trust funds, that the decision of what notice was required in such situations should be left to the states.

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 339

References

Further reading

• Hayward, Marvin C. (1950). "The Effect of Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank and Trust Company upon Publication of Notice in Iowa". Iowa L. Rev. 36 (1): 47–60.

External links

• Text of Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306 (1950) is available from: CourtListener  Findlaw  Google Scholar  Justia  Library of Congress 
• Case Brief for Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank and Trust at Lawnix.com