employees from 1870 up until 1980,
emplyees appointed by several people
wives of employees
Decision
class of beneficiaries
unascertainable
Nota:
this means it is impossible at any given time to achieve to achieve a complete and exhaustive enumeration of all persons then qualified for the inclusion in the class of "beneficiaries"
so the trust is uncertain
there can be no division of equal shares when not all the member of the class are known
evidentially certain
Nota:
possible to determine with certainty whether or not any particular individual is or is not a member of the class
the court cannot control or execute this trust
respondents successful arguments
cannot enforce trustees to excerice an uncontrolled discretion
Nota:
discretion to determine who qualifies as beneficiary
not particular beneficiary can execute trust
Nota:
unascertainable class short of whole beneficiaries no particular beneficiary/ies can claim
Obiter
unascertainable but evidentially certain
Nota:
while trustees can never discover all the beneficiaries, they can always tell whether a given individual is or is not one of the beneficiaries, and can therefore with certainty, confine any payments they think fit to make to persons qualified as beneficiaries.