Private Purpose Trusts Flashcards
Beneficiary principle - a trust must have ascertainable beneficiaries, though it may accumulate income for 125 years before capital has to be distributed
Morice v Bishop of Durham - every non-charitable trust must have a definite object
Need for beneficiary arises from the obligatory nature of a trust
Re Astor’s ST
Exceptions to the beneficiary principle
Re Endacott:
- Erection and maintenance of monuments and graves
- saying of private masses
- maintenance or particular animals
- miscellaneous cases
Trust for erection of monument was a valid PPT, but trust for maintenance of it was void on grounds of perpetuity
Mussett v Bingle
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
Re Douglas
Trust for tablet and window inside church upheld as charitable trust; trust for family graves outside the church upheld as PPT
Re Hooper
Masses said in private are not charitable
Gilmour v Coats
Saying of private masses upheld as PPT
Bourne v Keane
Trust for an individual animal may be upheld as a PPT
Pettingall v Pettingall Re Dean (dubious on perpetuity grounds)
Money left for “some useful memorial to myself” - trust for an unspecified and unidentified memorial was too wide and uncertain
Re Endacott - lacks certainty of object (i.e. purpose)
Rule against inalienability
Prevents income from the property being tied up for a private purpose for longer than the perpetuity period
Charitable trusts are exempt from this aspect of the perpetuity rule
Re Hooper; Re King; Re Douglas
For private purpose trusts, perpetuity period depends on common law
Perpetuity period = lifetime of any relevant life in being plus 21 years
Trust for erection of the monument to be made as soon as practicable upheld, but trust to maintain monument void for perpetuity grounds
Mussett v Bingle
Trust “for so long as the law allows” automatically brings trust to an end at the expiry of the perpetuity period
Re Hooper