Charities

Question 1

Sherhill v Khaira

Answer 1

Trustees have the power and obligation to execute a trust deed which gives practical contours to how trust funds are to be spent, so long as it doesn’t conflict with the broad purpose the settlor intended

Question 2

Commissioners v pemsel

Answer 2

Lord cross: seems to be no obvious reason why fiscal benefits should automatically be accorded to every non-private purpose, since such purposes will vary in the extent to which they confer genuine public benefits e.g. Student unions.
Lord Macnaughten summarised the spirit of intendment of the preamble: poverty, education, religion, other

Question 3

Scottish burial reform v Glasgow

Answer 3

The inexpensive, sanitary disposal of the dead was a charity
Lord Reid: ‘the court of appeal have gone further and have been satisfied if they could find an analogy between an object already held to be charitable and the new object claimed to be charitable

Question 4

Re coulthurst

Answer 4

Poverty is no limited to destitution but interpreted very broadly

Question 5

Re Niyazi’s will trust

Answer 5

Trust for a working man’s hostel in Cyprus, upheld as charitable although very close to the line that

Question 6

Re gwyon

Answer 6

The assistance must be purely to benefit the poor

Question 7

Re Keottgen’s will trust

Answer 7

Promotion and furtherance of commercial education-

Education extends beyond traditional institutional education

Question 8

Re Hopkins will trust

Answer 8

Valsey J: political propaganda masquerading as education is not education within the statute

Question 9

McGovern v AG

Answer 9

The production of mere propaganda is not the advancement of education
Shade J: a trust for research will ordinarily qualify as a charitable trust, but only if…

Question 10

Re south place ethical society

Answer 10

Dillon J: religion is concerned with man’s relationship with God, and ethics are concerned with man’s relationship with man- trust was not charitable under religion, but was under education and contributing to mental or moral improvement

Question 11

R c registrar general ex p segerdal

Answer 11

The church of Scientology was held to be a philosophy of existence, not a religion and so not a charity

Question 12

Gilmour v Coats

Answer 12

The purpose must be the advancement of religion

Question 13

Trustees of the British Museum v White

Answer 13

For the benefit of the British museum

Question 14

Re Shaw

Answer 14

49 letter alphabet in English and translation into the new alphabet was held not to be charitable- probably a narrow decision

Question 15

London Hospital Medical College v IRC

Answer 15

Purposes not per se educational or charitable have been held to be so of properly and traditionally associative with and ancillary to formal education

Question 16

Re Bushnell

Answer 16

Mere propaganda is not education

Question 17

South wood v AG

Answer 17

Mere assertion of advancement of education is not sufficient
Have to look beyond the stated purpose to see whether the method promoted public benefit

Question 18

Re Pinion

Answer 18

A gift to an established museum is charitable can be assumed to be of public benefit from no one challenges. Here, testator object was not to educate anyone but to solidify his own and family name

Question 19

IRC v Glasgow Police

Answer 19

A trust for the purpose of promoting athletic sports and general pastimes is not- being in the nature of a private trust for the advantage of its members

Question 20

Re Grove Grady

Answer 20

Refuge to all animals, birds and creatures from molestation or destruction by man- not charitable as no public benefit- would be decided differently now

Question 21

AG of the Cayman Islands v Wahr-Hansen

Answer 21

To any one or more religious, charitable or educational institution, or any organisation operating for the public good

Question 22

National anti-vivisection society

Answer 22

The total suppression of vivisection- determination of charitable interests may involved balancing competing purposes

Question 23

IRC v McMullen

Answer 23

The gift wasn’t provided in the interests of social welfare because it did not merely provide facilities for those deprived, secondly it was not intended to improve the conditions of life of those for whom facilities were primarily intended

Question 24

Independent Schools

Answer 24

S4 public benefit 2 aspects:

1) must actually be beneficial, not of no value or detrimental
2) must be a benefit to the public as opposed to some private group or artificially restricted section of the public

A charity that operates abroad satisfies public benefit requirement if it’s activities would be considered charitable if carried out in England

Question 25

Thornton v Howe

Answer 25

In the case of religion, the court appears to allow charities that it regards as having no benefit whatsoever

Question 26

Oppenheim v Tobacco securities

Answer 26

Personal nexus test: if a class is defined by a personal nexus to someone, the class is not a section of the public

Question 27

Dingle v turner

Answer 27

Lord Macnaughten’s dissenting criticisms in accepted by the HOL

Question 28

National anti-vivisection society

Answer 28

A detrimental purpose cannot be charitable

Question 29

Re Keottgens will trust

Answer 29

Personal nexus has been compromised- fringe benefits

Question 30

Neville Estates v Madden

Answer 30

The court is entitled to assume that some benefit accrues to the public from the attendance of a place of worship of person who live in this world and mix with their fellow citizens

Question 31

Gilmour v Coates

Answer 31

Order to nuns- by charitable- must be some engagement with the public

Question 32

Re Duffy

Answer 32

The class of actual or potential beneficiaries must not be negligible

Question 33

IRC v Baddelay

Answer 33

No personal nexus

Question 34

McGovern v AG

Answer 34

Slade J: where political purpose was one of change in laws of a foreign country would fail PB test as court would have every less means of judging whether the proposed change in the law was to benefit the local inhabitants and court would have to consider foreign relations

Question 35

Banor Law Memorial Trust

Answer 35

Promotion of one political party is not charitable

Question 36

Re brushnell

Answer 36

Promotion of particular political doctrine is not charitable

Question 37

National anti-vivisection

Answer 37

Promotion of a change in law is not charitable unless that purpose is mainly ancillary to the main charitable purpose

Question 38

Re Resch’s will trust

Answer 38

Not necessarily negated by charging fees but must not distribute profits

Question 39

Oxfam v Birmingham City District Counvil

Answer 39

Charity shop not entitled to relief from rates as it was not directed to the charitable purposes themselves

Question 40

Leahy v AG for NSW

Answer 40

VC Simonds: a trust may be created for the benefit of persons as ceatuis que Trust but not for a purpose or object unless the purpose or objects be charitable

Question 41

Re Astors Settlement

Answer 41

Roxburgh J: either the legal owner of the property is under an equitable obligation or he is not. If he is, someone else must have corresponding equitable rights against him which can be enforced

Question 42

Re Denley’s trust deed

Answer 42

Good J: appeared to extend the no purpose trust- stated that a purpose which is directly for the benefit of an individual or individuals is generally outside the mischief of the beneficiary principle

Question 43

Re Lipinski

Answer 43

Killing re denley with kindness

Question 44

Re Endacott

Answer 44

1) erection or maintenance of monuments or graves
2) trusts for the saying of masses
3) maintenance of particular animals

Question 45

Re Thompson

Answer 45

Pettingall orders