Private Purpose Trusts

Question 1

Beneficiary principle - a trust must have ascertainable beneficiaries, though it may accumulate income for 125 years before capital has to be distributed

Answer 1

Morice v Bishop of Durham - every non-charitable trust must have a definite object

Question 2

Need for beneficiary arises from the obligatory nature of a trust

Answer 2

Re Astor’s ST

Question 3

Exceptions to the beneficiary principle

Answer 3

Re Endacott:

• Erection and maintenance of monuments and graves
• saying of private masses
• maintenance or particular animals
• miscellaneous cases

Question 4

Trust for erection of monument was a valid PPT, but trust for maintenance of it was void on grounds of perpetuity

Answer 4

Mussett v Bingle

Question 5

Trusts for monuments/graves may be charitable (no perpetuity period) if monument located inside or attached to fabric of church building, or if grave inside churchyard and trust is for the churchyard in general

Answer 5

Re Douglas

Question 6

Trust for tablet and window inside church upheld as charitable trust; trust for family graves outside the church upheld as PPT

Answer 6

Re Hooper

Question 7

Masses said in private are not charitable

Answer 7

Gilmour v Coats

Question 8

Saying of private masses upheld as PPT

Answer 8

Bourne v Keane

Question 9

Trust for an individual animal may be upheld as a PPT

Answer 9

Pettingall v Pettingall
Re Dean (dubious on perpetuity grounds)

Question 10

Money left for “some useful memorial to myself” - trust for an unspecified and unidentified memorial was too wide and uncertain

Answer 10

Re Endacott - lacks certainty of object (i.e. purpose)

Question 11

Rule against inalienability

Answer 11

Prevents income from the property being tied up for a private purpose for longer than the perpetuity period

Question 12

Charitable trusts are exempt from this aspect of the perpetuity rule

Answer 12

Re Hooper; Re King; Re Douglas

Question 13

For private purpose trusts, perpetuity period depends on common law

Answer 13

Perpetuity period = lifetime of any relevant life in being plus 21 years

Question 14

Trust for erection of the monument to be made as soon as practicable upheld, but trust to maintain monument void for perpetuity grounds

Answer 14

Mussett v Bingle

Question 15

Trust “for so long as the law allows” automatically brings trust to an end at the expiry of the perpetuity period

Answer 15

Re Hooper

Question 16

Animals cannot be used as lives in being

Answer 16

Re Kelly

Question 17

Courts have on occasion taken notice of a particular animals’s lifespan

Answer 17

Re Haines, but approach questioned in Re Kelly

Question 18

A willing trustee is required as, in the absence of ascertainable beneficiaries, there is not one to initiate proceedings against an unwilling trustee. If the trust is not used for the intended purpose, the beneficiary entitled to the property as part of the testator’s residuary estate can claim the property beneficially

Answer 18

Re Thompson

Question 19

Purpose trusts for identifiable individuals

Answer 19

Re Denley’s Trust Deeds (land to be held on trust for employees to use as sports ground; valid perpetuity period and gift over)

Question 20

Suggested that Re Denley is merely an ordinary discretionary trust for the employees as a class of beneficiaries

Answer 20

Re Grant’s Will Trusts

Re Horley Town Football Blus

Question 21

Re Denley has been applied to gifts to UAs

Answer 21

Re Lipinski’s Will Trusts

Question 22

Trust for maintaining and funding private roads on housing estate for benefit of estate members was upheld as valid Re Denley trust

Answer 22

Grender v Dresden