Three Certainties

Question 1

Armitage v Nurse (Millet LJ)

Answer 1

“there is an irreducible core of obligations owed by the trustees to the beneficiaries and enforceable by them which is fundamental to the concept of a trust. If the beneficiaries have no rights enforceable against the trustees, there are no trusts.”

Question 2

Bisrat v Kebede

Answer 2

“equity never allows a trust to fail for want of a trustee”

Question 3

Brynes v Kendle

Answer 3

CERTAINTY OF INTENTION - S’s intention is judge objectively (even if subjectively he didn’t intend it and he hates the wife)

Question 4

Richards v Delbridge (Jessel MR)

Answer 4

• General donative intention is insufficient (needs to be clear)
  “It is true that the settlor need not use the words ‘I declare myself a trustee’ but he must do something that is equivalent to it and use expressions which have that meaning”
• you have to be clear

Question 5

Paul v Constance

Answer 5

it wasn’t clear here, but court decided it was a trust

Question 6

Lambe v Evans

Answer 6

• an intention to impose a legally binding duty is necessary
• can’t say ‘well i hope/wish/am confident that’
• docile words cannot create a trust
• precatory words don’t give rise to a trust

Question 7

Re Brace, Re Freud

Answer 7

precatory words don’t give rise to a trust

Question 8

Re Adams and Kensington Vestry

Answer 8

a testimony transfer from a husband to his widow “in full confidence that she will do what is right as to the disposal thereof between [S’s] children” did not manifest an intention (objectively) to impose a legally binding duty on T and so does not give rise to a trust

Question 9

Needs to be segregation of alleged trust property

Answer 9

Henry v Hammond

Question 10

Azam v Iqbal

Answer 10

if no requirement of segregation of trustee’s own funds and trust fund then it’s not a trust

Question 11

Re Lewis’s of Leicester

Answer 11

If there are several beneficiaries, and their trust properties are mixed, a trust can still be found, as long as the trust properties are not mixed with the trustee’s own money

Question 12

Palmer v Simmonds (1854)

Answer 12

Certainty of subject matter - “bulk of my estate” is not good enough

Question 13

Boyce v Boyce (1849)

Answer 13

S bequeathed two houses on T on trust to convey whichever house Maria should choose to Maria and to convey the other to Charlotte; Maria died before S so she did not make a selection. TRUST VOID because uncertainty of subject matter

Question 14

Re London Wine Co [1986]

Answer 14

There needs to be a clear trust property, it can’t be some of many – needs to be exactly which ones (wine boxes)

Question 15

Re Goldcorp Exchange Ltd

Answer 15

• No trust because subject matter was insufficiently clear

- Lord Mustill – need for identification is not “some legal technicality” but depends on the “very nature of things”

Question 16

MacJordan Construction Ltd v Brookmount Erostin Ltd

Answer 16

• No segregation of money
• If you have some things in a bulk but not all of it, it is not a valid declaration of a trust unless you take out the part that is meant to be trust property and take it somewhere else

Question 17

Hunter v Moss

Answer 17

• says shares, you don’t need to segregate trust property

- can say you have some of my shares

Question 18

Re Lehman Brothers International (Europe) [2010]

Answer 18

confirmed hunter v moss

Question 19

Re Gulbenkian’s ST [1970]

Answer 19

non-fiduciary powers, certainty of objects

• is or is not test
• HL rejected view that it’s only necessary to show one person is clearly within the class
• You need to show who falls within the class and who doesn’t

Question 20

Re Hay’s Settlement Trusts [1982

Answer 20

Megarry VC (for fiduciary powers, certainty of objects requires a few more things)
I.	To consider periodically whether or not he should exercise the power
II.	To consider the range of objects of the power
III.	To consider the appropriateness of individual appointments

Question 21

Re Baden (Megaw LJ)

Answer 21

there is no need for T to ascertain all the possible objects, as long as a substantial number of objects can clearly be identified, T can proceed to consider how to exercise the power to select particular objects as recipients of part of the Fund

Question 22

Re Baden’s Deed Trust (no,1)

Answer 22

is or is not test for discretionary trusts