Tyler Fiduciary Fraud Lawyer

I am a fiduciary litigation attorney that fights against fiduciary fraud.

The term "fiduciary" is derived from the civil law. It is impossible to give a definition of the term that is comprehensive enough to cover all cases. Generally speaking, it applies to any person who occupies a position of peculiar confidence towards another. It refers to integrity and fidelity. It contemplates fair dealing and good faith, rather than legal obligation, as the basis of the transaction. The term includes those informal relations which exist whenever one party trusts and relies upon another, as well as technical fiduciary relations. Kinzbach Tool Co. v. Corbett-Wallace Corp., 138 Tex. 565, 571, 160 S.W.2d 509, 512-513 (1942).

One of the most famous cases describing fiduciary duties was written by Justice Cardozo, who eventually became a United States Court Supreme Court Justice. Interestingly, he never received his law degree, but he is believed by most to be one of the greatest legal writers of all time. In Meinhard v. Salmon, 249 NY 458, 463-64 (NY Ct. App. 1928), he wrote “A trustee is held to something stricter than the morals of the market place. Not honesty alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the standard of behavior.” There has been a disintegrating erosion of this principle through statute. It is not as broad as Justice Cardozo wrote that it should be, but it is still quite similar even in statutes. There are tremendous duties required by partners, trustees, executors, and others in similar position. Some of these are termed “quasi-fiduciary” duties because they contain statutory definitions of a duty of care, duty of loyalty, and/or other duties. Legislatures have been careful not to use the word “fiduciary” at times so as not to trigger the common-law fiduciary duties. But statutory duties are similar in many respects.