Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children v. Gardiner

Mary Jane Gardiner (defendant), an inexperienced investor appointed as trustee over a trust benefiting several family members with the remainder to Shriners Hospitals (plaintiff), placed trust assets with a brokerage house but let her brother Charles, named as first alternate trustee, make all actual investment decisions without her own independent evaluation; Charles subsequently embezzled from the trust, and Shriners petitioned to hold Mary Jane liable for the full embezzled amount. The trial court denied the petition, and the court of appeals reversed.