Butler-Sloss & ors v Charity Commission & anr [2022] WTLR 865

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2022 #188

The Ashden Trust and the Mark Leonard Trust (the charities) were charitable trusts whose principal purposes were environmental protection and the relief of poverty.

The trustees of the charities sought the court’s blessing for an investment policy inspired by the Paris Climate Agreement (the Paris Agreement). The Paris Agreement’s primary objective was to limit global warming to 1.5 – 2 degrees, below pre-industrial levels, in part by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and by promoting ‘climate resilient development’.

The charities’ investment policy stood to exclude investm...

Charities: When should the court intervene?

An internal dispute at a religious charity led to High Court clarification on the extent to which members of a charity are fiduciaries. Philip Reed explores the implications Jaffer represents a step towards greater certainty in respect of members’ duties outside charities established as Companies Act companies. Readers will doubtless be familiar with the Supreme …
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Rittson-Thomas & ors v Oxfordshire County Council [2021] WTLR 679

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2021 #183

The appeal concerned Nettlebed School in Oxfordshire. In 1914 and 1928, Mr Robert Fleming conveyed land to Oxfordshire County Council (the council) under the School Sites Act 1841 (SSA 1841). The benefactions enabled a new school building to be built. The school operated on the site until 2006. In the 1990s, the council decided to relocate the school to a new building with improved facilities on other land owned by the council (adjacent to the old site), and the pupils moved to the new building in February 2006. The council’s plan was to sell the old site to pay o...

Charity: Where duty lies

Matthew Mills considers when members of charitable companies will be subject to fiduciary duties in light of the recent Supreme Court decision in Lehtimäki v Cooper Members of charitable companies may be concerned that Lehtimäki encourages the ‘losing side’ in a members’ vote to challenge the actions of the ‘winning side’. However, one recent authority …
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