Term
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Definition
| The Covenant that a testamentary gift was awarded to was no longer in existence at the time of death, therefore s32(3) precluded the application of s32. Furthermore, as the CoA found that the benefit to the named convent was the sole and indispensible purpose of the gift, there was no general charitable intention to enable any cy-pres application of the gift for some other charitable purpose. |
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Term
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Definition
| Equity will not permit a statute to be an Instrument of Fraud. When B's brother in law revoked on an oral agreement based on reliance placed on the requirements of conveyance, fraud arose. |
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Term
| Barclays Bank Ltd v Quistclose Investments Ltd |
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Definition
| QC advanced money to Rolls Razor for the sole purpose of paying dividends. When the company went into liquidation BB attempted to keep that money to off set RR's overdraft. QC argued a trust had been established in relation to the funds advaned to RR. Lord Wilberforce had no difficulty in recognising the co-existence in one transaction of both legal and equitable rights and remedies. In the present case he felt that the intention was to create a secondary trust for the benefit of QC, to arise if the primary trust, to enable payment of the dividend, could not be carried out. He saw no reason why the law could not give effect to this. |
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Term
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Definition
| In determining whether a trust has been created, the Court held that no specific words were required to do so. A trust can be created by any language which is clear enough to show an intention to create it. It may even be inferred from conduct. In this case the court was satisfied that Belton’s conduct in relation to the purchasing and keeping of sheep had created a trust in favour of his children. |
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Term
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Definition
| Authority for the existence of a secret trust. A secret trust is an equitable obligation that arises when a person agrees to accept the legal title of property on the death of the donor and hold that property as trustee for persons or purposes communicated to them by the donor. |
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Term
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Definition
| No certainty of subject when the donor left two houses to his daughters, one to Maria “whichever she may think proper to choose or select"and the other to Charlotte. Maria died before she could make the choice so there was no certainty as to which property was to go to Charlotte. |
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Term
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Definition
| A house was given on trust, with the instruction that the trustees were to block up the windows and doors for 20 years. The court held that there was an intestacy for this period. |
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Term
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Definition
| The master of a ship died at sea and in 1711 there was no way of communicating back to England this news. The first mate took over and he used the master's funds to trade and to make a profit. When the ship finally got back to England, the question arose as to who was entitled to the funds and the profits made with those funds. The master of the ship had left a wife and children who were the beneficiaries of his estate. The original fund went to the estate, the profits were also given to the wife and children. |
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Term
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Definition
Sophie Douglas as a traditional Maori Kuia, she dies in 1977. At the time of her death she owned and lived on 10-acre property in Whangamata. Sophie left the property absolutely to Emma, her daughter who in turn left the property to her eldest son Mark – the defendant in this case.
Proceedings were issued in the HC by members of Sophie’s extended family who purported to argue that the apparently absolute bequest to Emma was impressed with a secret trust “for the family”.
Court held that there was a lack of certainty of object as it wasn't possible to say who was "family" and who was not. Further the court found that the three elements of a secret trust “must be established to the reasonable satisfaction of the court”. However on the facts of the case there was insufficient evidence to find that a secret trust existed. |
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Term
| Canterbury Orchestra Trust v Smitham |
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Definition
| In this case the court stated that a trust for the advancement of musical education would be charitable, but a society formed to promote music merely for the amusement of its members would not. |
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Term
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Definition
| This case found that the overriding principle in Quistclose was that equity fastens on the conscience of the person who receives from another property transferred for a specific purpose only so that such a person will not be permitted to treat the property as their own or to use it for other than the stated purpose. |
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Term
| Centrepoint Community Growth Trust v CIR |
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Definition
| Concerned a cult in Northland and whether it could be considered a charitable trust for the advancement of religion. The court considered whether the trust was for the purpose of the advancement of religion based on the twofold requirement of a belief in something supernatural and a canon of conduct in relation to that belief. In this case it was found that they were. |
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Term
| CIR v Medical Council of New Zealand |
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Definition
| The medical Council of NZ was set up to register medical practitioners and discipline or suspend them if necessary. The majority held that the Medical Council was established for the purpose of the protection and benefit of the public. The majority then held that the protection of the public in respect of the quality of medical and surgical services would be within the fourth category of charitable purposes under Pamsel. |
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Term
| Clayton v Ramsden ; Re Tarnspolsk |
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Definition
| A conditional gift that required the donee to marry someone of Jewish decent was found to be an absolute gift because the condition of “Jewish” was not certain enough, and was contrary to public policy. |
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Term
| Commissioners for Special Purposes of Income Tax v Pemsel |
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Definition
| Identified the four heads of purpose that charitable trusts can legitimately arise: relief of poverty; advancement of religion; advancement of education; and other beneficial purposes. |
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Term
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Definition
| The was insufficient delivery when the donor told the donee the contents of the bag was the donee's, but asked her to put the bag back in her, the donor's, own wardrope. However there was sufficient delivery when the donor later instructed for the bag to be placed in the donee's wardrobe. |
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Term
| DV Bryant Trust Board v Hamilton City Council |
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Definition
| Hammond J took the view that trusts for the endowment and maintenance of homes for the aged are charitable, even where the donor stipulates that something in the way of rental must normally be contributed by a given resident. |
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Term
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Definition
| - If the testator has done everything that they had to do to transfer the property, the gift will stand, even if there remains an action that needs be done (in this case complying with formalities of the Life Insurance Act)as long as it doesn't require the donor to complete it. |
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Term
| General Communications Ltd v DFC New Zealand Ltd |
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Definition
| In this NZ case it was accepted that it was the lender’s intention that was critical. Accordingly, on the facts of the case, the finance company’s intention that funds would be used to purchase equipment meant that there was a trust to return it if there had been no purchase. However, when equipment had been purchased in accordance with that intention the money ought to have been paid over to the suppliers and could not be returned to the finance company. |
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Term
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Definition
| A trust that could only benefit purely contemplative nuns failed. The HL held that the fact prayer benefited the public was a matter that was not susceptible of proof in a court of law, and the court could only act on proof, not faith or belief. |
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Term
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Definition
| In this case the issue was whether a trust existed in relation to 50 shares out of a parcel of 950 indistinguishable shares. It was upheld that the requirement of certainty would be met if it would be possible, immediately after the proposed declaration of trust, to make an order for execution of the trust by transfer of its assets. In that case the court found it could make such an order and the trust was upheld. |
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Term
| In Re Stanford, University of Cambridge v AG |
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Definition
| In this case Mr Stanford in his will left a sum of money to the University of Cambridge to complete and publish a dictionary which he had begun work on. the court held that the university held the money that was left over in a resulting trust for his residuary estate. |
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Term
| Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England & Wales v A-G |
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Definition
| The primary object of the ICLR was the preparation and publication of reports of the judicial decisions of the Courts in England. The majority in the CoA found that the substantial purpose of the law reports was to provide essential material for the study of the law, and therefore the advancement of education. |
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Term
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Definition
| A woman put 100 pounds in to her daughter’s bank account but did not tell her, the mother died and then the daughter found the money in the account. The question was whose property was it when the mother died? Fair J said that it was the daughter’s property when she accepted it, and she accepted it when she became aware of it – therefore the money was the mother’s property |
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Term
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Definition
| There must be delivery along with intention for a valid gift to occur. |
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Term
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Definition
| In order to create an express private trust, each of the three certainties must be present. Here there was no certainty of intention. Although it was possible to create a trust orally, it was not certain from Jones’ words that he intended to create a trust in favour of his infant son. Further, equity will not perfect an imperfect gift. |
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Term
| Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust Housing Assn Ltd v A-G |
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Definition
| In this case it was held that relief of the aged did not have to be relief of the aged poor. It is a sufficiently charitable purpose to benefit the aged, or the impotent, or the poor. The judge also felt that there must be a need attributable to the aged or impotent condition of the person to be relieved by the charitable gift. |
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Term
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Definition
| The court held that picking up a chair and handing it over to the donee as a symbol of gifting all the donor’s chattels was sufficient delivery. |
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Term
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Definition
Betram Baden established a trust fund for the benefit of the staff of Matthew Hall & Co Ltd. McPhail went to the court to get a ruling that the trust deed was void in that it did not describe the potential beneficiaries with sufficient certainty.
After determining that the powers given to the trustees were trust powers, the court went on to explore the necessary test to establish certainty of object in relation to trust powers. In IRC v Broadway Cottages Trust the court held that in order for a trust power to be valid, it must be possible to draw up a complete list of the members of the class. Lord Wilberforce rejected this approach and stated that a trust is valid if it can be said with certainty that any given individual is or is not a member of the class |
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Term
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Definition
Turnder LJ noted that it is well settled law that in order to render a voluntary settlement valid and effectual the settlor must have done everything which is necessary to be done to transfer the property and render the settlement binding there are two ways of doing this:
1. Actually transfer the property to the person for whom they intend to provide, or to transfer the property to a trustee to hold on their behalf; or
2. By declaring themselves to hold it in trust for the persons for whom they intend to provide.
One of these modes must be utilised because equity will not perfect an imperfect gift |
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Term
| Morice v Bishop of Durham |
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Definition
| The testator had left her residual estate for “such objects of benevolence and liberality as the Bishop of Durham in his discretion shall most approve of”. The trust was held to be void. First, the words “objects of benevolence and liberality” did not meet the test for charity and secondly, no human beneficiary existed who benefited from, and hence could enforce, the trust. |
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Term
| Northcott v Public Trustee |
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Definition
| The donor, knowing she was very ill, told her friend that her post office savings books were to go to her Aunt Ilene, and wept. The next day the aunt visited the donor but nothing was said about death. The court held that the proper inference to draw was that the donor has the same thoughts in her mind when her aunt visited her as the day before. |
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Term
| Oppenheim v Tobacco Securities Trust Co Ltd |
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Definition
- In Oppenheim Lord Simonds laid down the public benefit test:
o The question is whether that class of persons can be regarded as such a ‘section of the community’ as to satisfy the test of public benefit. These words indicate:
That the possible beneficiaries must not be numerically negligible; and
That the quality which distinguished them from other members of the community, so that they form by themselves a section of it, must be a quality that does not depend on their relationship to a particular individual.
In this case, because the trust was set up to benefit employees of the company, it was held not to be charitable. |
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Term
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Definition
| Brightman J defined the person upon whom a secret trust is imposed as a “primary donee” and a beneficiary under that trust as “the secondary donee”. The fundamental principle underpinning the doctrine of a secret trust is the obligation imposed on the conscience of the primary donee. |
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Term
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Definition
| the court noted that Mr Turner had set about making improvements to the house in the years that she lived there - throughout which Mr Pascoe stood by encouraging her to make the improvements. The court held that this was a case of estopple arising from Mr Pascoe’s actions. This acted as an exception to the rule in Milroy v Lord, in that equity could not be satisfied here without compelling Mr Pascoe to give effect to his promise and Mrs Turner’s expectations. He had so acted that he must perfect the gift. |
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Term
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Definition
| intention to create a trust can be inferred from conduct. Establishment of a separate bank account, reference to the moneys as being jointly owned and use of the money jointly was held to be sufficient evidence of an intention to create a trust. |
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Term
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Definition
| Trusts can be establish for the keeping of animals. in this case the court held that the mare should be maintained as the testator wished and that the executor was entitled to any surplus. |
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Term
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Definition
| The donor made a valid donation mortis causa gift of two post office bank books as he was setting off to war. The ship he was on was torpedoed 2 months later and he died. The gift was held to be valid. |
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Term
| R v District Auditor, ex p West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council |
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Definition
| In this case a trust was set up for the benefit of “any or all or some of the inhabitants of the county of West Yorkshire” in any of the four specified ways. The Court held that an “inhabitant of West Yorkshire” was conceptually certain but the trust was void because of administrative unworkability. |
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Term
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Definition
| The property was the church organ that had been put in a church and was too heavy to move – the donee decided to give the organ to the organist and not the church. Putting his hand on the organ and stating that he gifted the organ to the organist was held to be sufficient delivery. |
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Term
| Re Adams & Kensington Vestry |
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Definition
| In the present circumstances the court decided that George Smith’s intention, as he plainly says, was to leave the property to his wife absolutely. The fact that he expressed the confidence that his wife would do what was right was merely a confidence and did not impose a trust on his wife. |
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Term
| Re Ann Sinclair Charitable Trust |
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Definition
| Dobson J was able to approve the removal of a gender specific restriction – not because boys-only grants were inconsistent with contemporary societal norms – but because on inspection of the facts it was clear that the settlor had only imposed a gender-specific restriction because the original trust had been designed to support a residential facility, in 1957, when only gender specific accommodation would have been workable and acceptable. |
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Term
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Definition
| In relation to the erection and maintenance of a grave, the court held that there was nothing in the will to indicate that the testratix contemplated the trust should continue in perpetuity. She may have meant it to continue for a reasonable time, such as the lifetime of her executor; for 21 years; or until the finds were exhausted – none of which broke the rule against perpetuity. |
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Term
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Definition
Colin Cooper communicated the intention to establish a secret trust for the sum of £5,000 to his trustee. 2 days before his death he increased the £5,000 to £10,000 in his will.
The court held that it was not possible to give effect to Cooper’s desires “because he had not taken the steps which the law requires to enable that desire to become effective.” It was necessary that the intention of the testator be communicated to the trustees, that the trustees accept the instructions of the testator, and that on the faith of that acceptance, Cooper made a gift to the trustees.
The court treated the purported increase in the original bequest as a second bequest, and second purported secret trust for another £5,000. In respect of the second bequest, the secondary elements had not been made out, consequently the additional gift of £5,000 failed. |
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Term
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Definition
The testator made bequests to promote:
(a) The idea of world peace;
(b) The idea that people suffering from terminal illness, whether from sickness or age, are able to die with dignity;
(c) Voluntary euthanasia; and
(d) A government inquiry to investigate a friend’s death and publish the testator’s book about the matter.
All four gifts failed under the relevant heads. Hammond J had to consider whether the testator had a paramount charitable intent with respect of the bequests. He held that (b) did and this clause was saved by s 61b CTA 1957. The money that was to be applied under the imperfect trust provision (a, c and d) was arrogated exclusively for the charitable purpose of helping people die with dignity. Accordingly there was jurisdiction for a scheme. |
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Term
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Definition
| The English CoA held that a trust for the education of the lawful descendants of three named persons was not charitable. Lord Greene MR reasoned that a distinction between personal and impersonal trusts had to be made. The former were trusts for private persons and the latter were charitable, satisfying the public benefit element necessary in all charities. |
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Term
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Definition
| A trust for the maintenance of certain animals for 50 year, if any should live that long, was held to be valid. |
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Term
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Definition
| A company conveyed land upon trust to Haryy Denley and other trustees to hold for the use and purpose of a recreation or sports ground primarily for the benefit of the company’s employees. Goff J held that the beneficiary principle was confined to purpose trusts with are abstract or impersonal. The objection is not that the trust is for a purpose or object per se, but that there is no beneficiary or cestui que trust. In the present case the trust deed expressly stated that the employees of the company should be entitled to the use and enjoyment of the land, and accordingly they would have standing to enforce the trust. |
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Term
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Definition
In English law a trust must have ascertained or ascertained beneficiaries. The exception to this is if the trust is charitable, or if it is uncharitable but public in nature, making it enforceable by the Court. Such exceptions could be classified as:
1. Trusts for the erection or maintenance of monuments or graves;
2. Trusts for the saying of masses;
3. Trusts for the maintenance of particular animals;
4. Trusts for the benefit of unincorporated associations; and
5. Miscellaneous cases. |
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Term
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Definition
| The court approved a scheme where the trust was “to provide medical assistance not available in NZ” at a time when organ transplant were not available except overseas. The court held that the transfer of the trust property to the National Liver Transplant Services to build accommodation for the patient’s families maintained the original features of the trust. |
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Term
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Definition
| Adrian Golay left a will in which he directed his executors to allow “Tossy” to “enjoy one of my flats during her lifetime and to receive a reasonable income from my other properties”. The court thought that the yardstick indicated by the testator was not what he or any other specified person subjectively considered to be reasonable but what is identified objectively as a reasonable income. the Courts were constantly involved in making such an assessment and accordingly the direction in the will was not defeated by uncertainty. |
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Term
| Re Goldcorp Exchange Ltd (In Receivership) |
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Definition
| This case confirmed the reasoning in Re London Wine Co. and that you cannot have a trust in relation to property that does not exist. In this case, members of the public had bought and sold gold bullion from G. The purchasers thought they were buying actual, physical individual lots of gold and that G was storing the gold for them. In fact there was just one mass of gold, and more had been sold than existed and G was not obliged to supply the purchased gold from any particular source but supplied gold from a fluctuating stock. The PC held that in these circumstances, no trust could arise. |
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Term
| Re Gulbenkian’s Settlement |
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Definition
| In his judgement, Lord Upjohn noted that the trustee’s discretion to distribute the fund’s income was a “mere” or “bare” power - the trustees would exercise their discretion to distribute the money to any of the beneficiaries they choose, but they did not have to do so. He then identified that the test in these situations was whether you can satisfy with sufficient certainty whether any given individual is or is not a member of the class. |
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Term
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Definition
| The court thought that a trust set up to provide underwear for boys could not be a trust for the benefit of the poor and needy. None of the conditions laid upon possible recipients imported a requirement of poverty. In these circumstances the court could not hold that there was a legal charitable trust. |
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Term
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Definition
| the court concluded that the trust for the maintenance of graves and monuments were valid for a period of 21 years from Harry’s death; while the tablets and windows in the Church were good charitable gifts, and therefore the rule against perpetuities did not apply to them. |
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Term
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Definition
| The testator wanted her house to be held in trust for the combination of a cat and bird sanctuary. This was held not to be charitable because it disclosed no general charitable intention or purpose and had no charitable content. |
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Term
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Definition
| This case concerned a mail order company who had placed customer deposits in a separate bank account. Here it was held that there was clearly an intention that there should be a trust |
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Term
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Definition
| Here Mrs L handed over a key to a trunk that contained the key to a safe deposit box at Harris in London. That in turn contained a key to a safe in the city of London and inside that safe was some jewels. Mrs L told her friend to whom she gave the first key, if and when she died, she could have the jewels. The court held that this was sufficient delivery. |
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Term
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Definition
| A company had stocks of wine in various warehouses that it sold to different customers. It was intended that when the wine was purchased it would become the property of the customers and would be stored by the company at the expense of the customer. The court held that while there was an intention to create a trust, the trust failed. There was uncertainty of subject matter because there has never been any appropriation of the wine within the warehouse until physical delivery to a purchaser had occurred. |
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Term
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Definition
| Mr Lucas directed thathis estate was to be invested and the income given to “the oldest respectable inhabitants in Gunville” in the amount of five shillings per week each. Russell J felt that the words by themselves did not connote poverty, but that the sum of five shillings a week indicated quite clearly that the beneficiaries would be those to whom five shillings a week would be a comfort and relief. Although the element of age alone would not transform a gift into a valid charitable trust, in this case the gift could be construed to mean that the beneficiaries are needy people and the element of poverty could be induced. Therefore this was a valid charitable gift. |
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Term
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Definition
| The trustees argued that in light of changing social conditions the money would be better spent on supporting the work of organisations that supported the elderly living in their own homes. The CoA refused to grant approval. The statutory test is one of inexpediency - to be inexpedient is to he “unsuitable, inadvisable or inapt”. Since there was a foundation in place that could provide institution-based care for the elderly, the trustees could not show that giving effect to the settlor’s intentions was inexpedient and s32 could not be invoked. |
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Term
| Re Mitchell, P T v Salvation Army |
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Definition
| George Mitchell set out in his will that part of his residuary estate was to be given to the Salvation Army to apply the annual income on trust for the benefit of young women, married or unmarried, who had their first child in the Salvation Army maternity ward at Christchurch. The Court accepted that the gift was a valid charitable trust for the relief of poverty. The evidence showed that although admission to the maternity home was not restricted only to the poor, it was nevertheless clear that most women went their because of their poverty. Thus, despite no express reference to poverty in the will, it was held to be a trust for the relief of poverty. |
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Term
| Re Northern Developments (Holdings) |
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Definition
| It was held that a Quistcolse trust attached to the fund. He considered that it was the purpose trust enforceable by the banks as lenders; Kelly, for whose immediate benefit the trust fund was established, and Kelly’s creditors. The VC held that the fund was established not with the object of vesting the beneficial interest in them, but in order to confer a benefit on Kelly, and so consequently on the rest of the group and the bankers, by ensuring that Kelly’s creditors would be paid. He held that the creditors had a right akin to the right of a beneficiary under a will to compel an executor to administer the estate properly. |
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Term
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Definition
| A stepfather put some shares in his stepson’s name without telling him. When the stepson found out he disclaimed the gift and the English CoA held that there was no effective gift. The case is also authority for the fact that once the disclaimer had been made it cannot be revoked. |
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Term
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Definition
| Arthur Pinion’s will instructed that his former house, together with all its contents, was to be turned into a museum. Unanimous expert opinion was that the items contained within the property were of no value. In the opinion of Harman J no useful object could be served in foisting such a mass of junk upon the public therefore Mr Pinion’s trust was not carried into effect. |
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Term
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Definition
| In this case it was found that because the testator had done everything that they had to do to transfer the property, the gift will stand. |
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Term
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Definition
| The court thought that the research and propaganda envisaged by Shaw would merely increase public knowledge with respect to the saving of time and money by the use of the proposed alphabet and there was no element of teaching or education combined with this. |
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Term
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Definition
| The testator's will purported to set up a trust to promote education of Irish people to be better citizens in the various departments of life. It was held that this trust was educational – but noted that the court should not weigh the respective merits of particular educational methods – it would suffice if purposes are genuinely educational in their aim and scope. |
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Term
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Definition
| The words "without however creating a binding trust in that regard" were the clearest possible expression of intention that the children in their exercise of a power were asked to have regard to the testator's expressed wish but were not bound to do so. Nothing in the will as a whole justified departing from the plain meaning of those words. The precatory words taken in the context of the will as a whole did not create a precatory trust. |
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Term
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Definition
| A testator by his will provided as follows: "I hereby bequeath all my earthly belongings to my dear wife Emma Marion Taylor and leave her sole trustee and executor to do just as she thinks best with everything. I wish and trust that my wife Emma Marion Taylor will see that my dear children Elva, Brian, Nancy and June are all given an equal share of what there is for them when the time comes for them to start in life." This expresses a mere wish and did not create a trust. |
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Term
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Definition
| The settlor had, in the 1920s, wanted to help a new rural community by providing a cluster complex of a school, public hall, church and creamery. He had been endeavouring to confer economic and social benefit on that particular community for the public good. It was held that it would be wrong in principle and unrealistic to see the creamery in isolation and concluded that the purpose of establishing a creamery was a charitable purpose in law under the fourth head. |
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Term
| Re The Trusts of the Abbott Fund |
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Definition
| In this case, money had been collected for the maintenance of two elderly ladies who were deaf and mute. When they had both passed away there was some money left over in the trust and the question the trustees asked the court was what they were to do with it. The courts decided here that the intention of the donors was to benefit the two old ladies and nothing more, so the excess money went back to the donors. |
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Term
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Definition
| In this case a trust of £1,000 to be applied to the furtherance of fox hunting was held to be valid. The legatee was required by the court to undertake to apply the legacy to the object and the residuary beneficiaries were given the liberty to apply to the court in the event that the legacy was not so applied. |
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Term
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Definition
| Tipping J confirmed that with the cy-pres modification one had to apply the money to a purpose as close as possible to the failed purpose, but that s32 of CTA 1957 had no such qualification; the section gives the court the power to approve a scheme where the testator has exhibited his or her intention to make a gift for a charitable purpose but with inadequate direction or where the directions are clear, but unable to be administered. The section requires that the property or income be applied to some other charitable purpose. Tipping J also confirmed that the court owed a duty to the testator to follow his or her wishes as closely as possible the scheme that the trustees had put forward failed in this regard. |
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Term
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Definition
| Walsh left a will leaving all of his property to the Reverend Keenan “according to instructions to be given hereafter”. Rev. Walsh subsequently dies and Rev Keenan was appointed executor under the will. On the day before Walsh’s death he instructed Keenan as to how his property was to be disposed. The court found that the effect of the will was to give him the testator’s estate upon trust to be declared at some later stage. In this situation, the will failed to establish a properly constituted trust in favour of those parties names in Walsh’s instructions. |
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Term
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Definition
| The testator gave his residuary estate to his wife “in the fullest trust and confidence that she [would] carry out [his] wishes in the following particulars”. The court decided that the testator had intended an absolute gift to his wife and that no trust was intended. |
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Term
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Definition
| Even though the communication of information establishing the secret trust had only been made to one of the executors, the omission to inform the other executors was not material in this case, and did not upset the existence of a secret trust. |
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Term
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Definition
| A settlor tried to give his grandson a lease of a mill. He wrote on the back of the deed of lease “I give this lease to Mr Richards from this time forth.” He then gave the lease to his grandson’s mother. This was an ineffectual assignment of a lease at law, and it was held that it could not be viewed as a valid trust. |
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Term
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Definition
| The donor, who was in hospital, told the donee that his house was hers and that the deeds were in a steel box in a cupboard there. It seemed that during the donee’s visit to the hospital the donor had contrived to put the keys of the box in her handbag. The donor died a few days later. It was held that the donee had been put in possession of the only keys to the locked box containing the deeds. The CoA held that parting with dominion over the deeds could amount, in the circumstance of the case, to parting with dominion over the land itself. |
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Term
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Definition
| A wife paid mortgage repayments and other outgoings on a house that her husband told her she could keep. The court held that when the husband made this statement an equity arose, the wife acted in reliance and to her detriment and, therefore, the husband was ordered to complete the gift and transfer the property to his wife. |
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| Thomas v Times Book Co Ltd |
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Definition
| This concerned a manuscript of a play of a famous poet and playwright, before he left London for New York, he lost the manuscript in some park. The producer said not to worry and that he would find it – he said that if he found it he can keep it. some years later he tried to sell it. Dylan Thomas’ wife objected to this, the court said that the intention to make the gift continued until it was found. |
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Definition
| this case concerned a question about the meaning of the term “Mary to have a small portion of what left.” The court held that this bequest to Mary was void for uncertainty. |
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Definition
| The donor made a gift while he had cancer. A month later he caught a cold as a result of travelling on a bust to he local market. He dies of pneumonia 12 days later. It was held that there had been a valid donation mortis causa gift. |
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Definition
| In this case the subject matter of an alleged trust was the first £500 of farming income. The trust was held void due to uncertainty of subject matter because future property is not capable of being made the subject of a trust. |
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Definition
| The father was hospitalised and dying of leukaemia. As his wife could not drive, the son drove her to the hospital. The father said to the son that he could keep the keys and that he would not be driving any more. The court held that the handing over the keys was sufficient delivery of the car. |
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Definition
| In this case funds had been provided to an immigrant to enable him to invest NZ$1 million in NZ in order to satisfy the requirements of the immigration category to which he belonged. The court found that there was insufficient specificity to justify the finding of a QC trust; the money had been merely supplied for “the general purpose of making an investment” the terms upon which the money was given vague, and the prime purpose of enabling the borrower to get NZ residency had been accomplished. |
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