5. Private Purpose Trusts and Unincorporated Associations

Question 1

Morice v Bishop of Durham

Answer 1

Beneficiary principle

Question 2

Re Endacott

Answer 2

o (1) Erection and maintenance of monuments and graves
o (2) Saying of private masses
o (3) Maintenance of particular animals
o (4) Miscellaneous cases

‘For the purpose of providing some useful memorial to myself’ - fails for want of certainty of objects

Question 3

Mussett v Bingle

Answer 3

Testator established trust for monument to wife’s first husband

Void on perpetuity grounds - no duration specified, so maintenance could have carried on indefinitely

Question 4

Re Douglas

Answer 4

Trusts for monuments and graves may be charitable on religious grounds if located inside or attached to church

Question 5

Re Hooper

Answer 5

Money given for upkeep of tablet and window in church = charitable trust

Money given for maintaining family graves and monuments outside church = PPT

‘For as long as the trustees can legally do so’ (i.e. 21 years) - valid

Question 6

Re Hetherington

Answer 6

Masses said in private are not charitable

Question 7

Bourne v Keane

Answer 7

Saying of masses in private upheld as a valid testamentary PPT

Question 8

Pettingall v Pettingall

Answer 8

Trust for £50 each year for upkeep of testator’s favourite black mare upheld as PPT

Question 9

Re Dean

Answer 9

Testator’s trust for feeding horses and hounds for 50 years if they should live that long upheld

Valid, in spite of not complying with perpetuity requirements

Question 10

Re Thompson

Answer 10

Testamentary trust upheld for promotion of fox-hunting (this particular type of trust is no longer valid, since fox-hunting ban)

Question 11

Re Denley

Answer 11

Non-charitable purpose trust that would otherwise be void may be upheld if it is expressed to be for the benefit of ascertainable individuals

What is necessary for this to apply is
o (1) Non-abstract person
o (2) Ascertainable beneficiary
o (3) Complies with perpetuity rules

Question 12

Re Grant’s Will Trusts

Answer 12

Denley nothing more than an ordinary discretionary trust for the employees as class of beneficiaries

Question 13

Conservative and Unionist Central Office v Burrell

Answer 13

Definition of UA
o (1) Two or more persons
o (2) Non-business common purpose
o (3) Set of rules and regulations

Question 14

Cocks v Manners

Answer 14

Gift for present members beneficially

Gift to a particular convent was upheld in favour of the individual nuns

Question 15

Re Recher’s WT

Answer 15

Gift for present members beneficially

Judge declines to apply this interpretation as a means of upholding a legacy to an anti-vivisection society that had ceased to exist

Question 16

Re Grant’s WT

Answer 16

Gift for present members beneficially

Construction might apply where name of association is used as convenient label to describe class of persons

Gift to members subject to rules of association

Fails according to this interpretation, since local branch of Labour Party doesn’t have control over its own assets

Question 17

Neville Estates v Madden

Answer 17

Gift to members subject to rules of association

Question 18

Artistic Upholstery v Art Forma

Answer 18

Gift to members subject to rules of association

The ‘prevailing view’

Question 19

Re Horley Town Football Club

Answer 19

Gift to members subject to rules of association

Football ground left for ‘the purposes of the club’ took effect as a gift to the members subject to the club rules

Question 20

Leahy

Answer 20

Trust for present and future members

Where gift is made to individuals, in their name or in society’s name, but they are not intended to take beneficially, they must take as Ts

Question 21

Philippe v Cameron

Answer 21

Trust for lawn tennis club held void as a perpetuitous non-charitable purpose trust

Question 22

Re Lipinski’s Trusts

Answer 22

Applies principle in Re Denley to UAs

Intention to create a trust is likely to be inferred if any of the following apply
o (1) The testator imposes a specific direction or limitation on how the property is to be used (as in Lipinski)
o (2) The legacy refers to the property be held ‘on trust’ (as in Leahy)
o (3) A donation is made to ‘trustees’ of the association (as in Re Grant)

Question 23

Re Bucks

Answer 23

Surplus assets should be distributed equally between current members at date of dissolution

Question 24

Re West Sussex

Answer 24

Surplus assets should go to Crown as bona vacantia

Question 25

Re GKN Bolts and Nuts

Answer 25

Association had full, associate, temporary and honorary members - only full members would receive equal shares

Question 26

Re Sick and Funeral Society

Answer 26

Where different classes of member have differing contractual burdens and benefits, that inequality ought to be reflected in division of surplus

Question 27

Hanchett-Stamford v AG

Answer 27

Death of one of two surviving members - UA dissolved and surviving member can claim association’s surplus assets