Ganten said, “Apparently it hasn’t occurred to you, Mr. Mason, that the medical examiner might be mistaken.”
“It has,” Mason admitted. “I’m willing to grant you the possibility that the medical examiner was mistaken. You’re not willing to grant me the possibility that it was Tidings’ secretary who made the mistake.”
Ganten half turned in his chair so that he was facing Mason. “Is it your position,” he inquired coldly, “that if it should appear that Mr. Tidings was dead at the time the secretary concluded the transaction, there is any liability on the part of my clients?”
“Fifty thousand dollars’ worth of it,” Mason announced cheerfully.
Ganten assumed the manner of one talking to a child. “I am afraid, Mr. Mason, that your legal experience has been confined too much to courtroom technicalities, under the distorted rules of criminal procedure.”
“Suppose you leave my legal experience out of it,” Mason suggested, “and get down to brass tacks.”
“Very well,” Ganten announced, and then turned to Loftus. “There’s absolutely nothing to this, Mr. Loftus,” he said. “He hasn’t a leg to stand on. Even conceding for the sake of the argument that Tidings was dead at the time of the transaction, there can be no liability on your part. He can’t even question the authority of the trustee.
“Under the law, the death of a trustee creates a vacancy which is filled by the appointment of another trustee in a court of competent jurisdiction. Until that appointment is made, the administrator of the decedent trustee assumes charge of the property… There is no question but what Mr. Mattern was acting in accordance with specific instructions given by Mr. Tidings. There’s absolutely nothing to this claim.”
Loftus said, with a smile which was almost a sneer, “You see, Mr. Mason, Mr. Ganten is an expert in matters of this sort. He’s a specialist on contracts.”
“And contractual relationships,” Ganten supplemented.