Purpose and Charitable Trusts

Purpose and Charitable Trusts

1. Beneficiary Principle

   • Morice v Bishop of Durham
     • For a trust to be valid it must be for the benefit of ascertainable individuals
   • Must be beneficiary to enforce beneficial obligation of trustee
     • Re Astor's
   • Exceptions
     • Charitable trusts
     • Re Denley
       • Where a trust is made for a purpose which is for the direct or indirect benenfit of ascertainable individuals
         • Affirmed in Re Grant's Wills Trusts
           • No difference between Re Denley and discretionary trust - yes there is Denley trust allows mere administrative discretion - Discretionary trusts allow trustees to decide who is a beneficiary
   • Put another way, trusts cannot be for a purpose

2. Gifts to unincorporated associations

   • Way around BP?
     • Create a trust for the benefit of a UA which aims to promote the wanted purpose
   • Group of individuals who don't create a legal entity - i.e. uni societies
   • Criteria displayed in Conservative and Unionist Central Office v Bursell
     • 1. Two or more persons bound together for non-business purposes 2. Mutual undertakings and obligations 3. Rules to identify who controls it and its finances 4. Each member enters the contract voluntarily
   • Contract Holding Theory
     • Re Recher's Wills Trust
       • Gifts made to UAs will go to the trustee-treasurer and distributed amongst the UA as is stated in their mutual contract
       • 3 different ways of distribution
         • Neville Estates v Madden
           • A gift to individual members as co-owners
           • A gift to individual members subject to their contractual rights and liabilities to each other
           • The gift is held on trust for the purposes of the association as a whole as a quasi-corporate entity

3. Charitable trusts

   • Charitable Purpose
     • DIngle v Turner
       • 1. The character of the purpose must be charitable 2. The purpose must be beneficial on balance 3. The purpose must benefit a section of the public 4. The purpose must be exclusively charitable and not political 5. The purpose must not seek to make a profit
     • 1. Character
       • Charities Act 2011
         • Poverty
           • Does not mean destitution
             • People who may go short
               • Re Coulthurst
             • Those in limited means
               • Re Gardom
             • Decayed actors
               • Spiller v Maude
           • Can benefit a class but not if some aren't poor
             • 'Poor employees' is ok
               • Dingle v Turner
             • Working class not as not all are poor
               • Re Sander's Will Trusts
         • Education
           • Includes education in normal sense as well as others
             • Artistic education
               • Royal Choral Society v IRS
             • Museums
               • British Museums Trustees v White
             • Sports at schools
               • Re Mariette
             • Student Unions
               • London Hospital Medical College v IRS
             • Professional bodies which advance education
               • Royal College of Surgeons v National Provincial Bank
             • Research
               • McGovern v A-G
         • Relgion
           • Not distinguished on quality
             • Neville Estates v Madden
           • Distinguishes between what is and isn't religion i.e. Scientology
             • Original position is scientology is not a religion
               • Ex Parte Segerdal
             • Australian case against that view
               • Church of the New Faith v Comr
             • s3(2) Charities Act
             • Likely to be classified as religion now
               • Hodgkins v Registrar General for Births
   • Public Benefit
     • Independent Schools case
       • Discussion around that
       • Must be beneficial on balance
         • Benefit must outweigh any detriment
           • National Anti-vivisection Society v IRS
       • Must benefit a section of the public, not private individuals
         • Can be for people in a geographical location or the children of those in certain professions but not companies
           • Oppenheim Tobbaco
         • Personal Nexus test
           • If a class is defined by a personal nexus to an individual it is not a sufficient portion of the public
             • Oppenheim Tobacco