Three Certainties

Question 1

Which case established the three certainties?

Answer 1

Knight v Knight (1840)

Question 2

What are the three certainties?

Answer 2

Certainty of intention (creation)

subject matter (property, beneficial interests)

object (beneficiaries)

Question 3

What effect do precatory words have? I.e. confidence, wish, belief, hope

Answer 3

If there is no certainty of intention then the donee takes absolutely (gifted, no trust)

Question 4

Which case established that the phrase ‘in full confidence ‘ is precatory?

Answer 4

Re Adams & The Kensington Vestry

Question 5

Is the phrase ‘absolutely in full confidence’ precatory?

Answer 5

No, under Comiskey v Bowring-Hanbury

Question 6

Trust or no trust (due to precatory words)?

“At her disposal in any way she may think best..”

Answer 6

No trust, under Lambe v Eames

Question 7

Can intention to create a trust be demonstrated by conduct?

Answer 7

Yes, under Re Kayford - where a mail order co opened a customer account and by doing so created a trust

Question 8

Can informal words be used as evidence of intention?

Answer 8

Yes, under Paul v Constance - where the words of a bank manager were taken as evidence of intention

Question 9

Is the phrase ‘reasonable income’ sufficiently certain as subject matter?

Answer 9

Yes, under Re Golay’s Trust

Question 10

Which case established that the beneficial interest must also be certain?

Answer 10

Boyce v Boyce - where the testator left two houses to his two daughters, but one could choose whichever house she wanted. She died without choosing, so the subject natter was not certain and the trust failed

Question 11

What was the ruling in Re London Wine Co?

Answer 11

That because buyers of wine had no segregated the wine in the warehouse from the general stock, a trust could not be established. This established that the degree of certainty for intangible assets is higher than for tangible ones

Question 12

Which intangible assets do not the same degree of certainty?

Answer 12

Shares, as they are all identical, under Hunter v Moss

Question 13

Which are the only trusts that need not be for ascertainable beneficiaries?

Answer 13

Charitable trusts, under Re Vanderwell’s Trusts

Question 14

What is the test to determine if a fixed trust has certainty of subject matter?

Answer 14

It must be possible to draw up a complete list of all beneficiaries, under IRC v Broadway Cottages

Question 15

What right do beneficiaries of a discretionary trust have?

Answer 15

To be considered by the trustees in the exercise of their discretion

Question 16

Is the term ‘friends’ a conceptually certain set?

Answer 16

No, it is not but ‘relatives’ is, under Re Baden’s Deed Trusts

Question 17

What is evidential uncertainty?

Answer 17

Where the settlor’s words are sufficiently precise, but they are difficult to apply due to uncertainty of facts, i.e. the term ‘employees’ could refer to past/present employees as the category changes. Re Tuck Settlement Trust

Question 18

Which case is an example of administrative unworkability?

Answer 18

R v west york met county council, where the the category of beneficiaries was so wide it did not form a class at all

Question 19

What did Re Barlow’s show?

Answer 19

That the term ‘family’ is conceptually certain, and that because this was a series of gifts rather than a trust there was no requirement to establish all members of the trust

Question 20

What is an example of a capricious trust?

Answer 20

Brown v Burdett, in which the testatrix said that parts of her house should be bricked up for 20 years after her death