Commercial Trusts: Pragmatism prevails

Giles Richardson looks at the current approach of the English courts to trusts arising in commercial contexts ‘The practical effect of a Re Benjamin order in commercial trust contexts will often be practically to extinguish all claims that tardy beneficiaries have.’ This article considers the High Court decisions in Re MF Global [2013] and Re …
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Re English & American Insurance Co Ltd; Re the Trustee Act 1925 HC13C02801

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2014 #136

This was an application by the trustees of a trust arrangement forming part of Schemes of Arrangement following the insolvency of English & American Insurance Company Ltd (EAIC). The trustees were unable to make distributions to the vast majority of beneficiaries under the trust owing to the existence of a small subset of beneficiaries who potentially had rights under the fund. Accordingly the trustees made an application under s57 of the Trustee Act 1925 for power to apportion the trust fund or alternatively for power to make interim distributions either under the court’s...

Hughes & ors v Bourne & ors [2012] EWHC 2232 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | October 2012 #123

Eric Lionel Thomas (the settlor) settled a trust (the 1961 settlement) by deed dated 27 June 1961 (the 1961 deed). The principal asset of the 1961 settlement was a controlling interest in NWN Media (the company), a family owned newspaper publishing company that published local newspapers in Wales, Chester, Shropshire and Herefordshire. The trustees of the 1961 settlement (the trustees) were given powers by the 1961 deed to sell shares with the consent of the settlor during his lifetime and thereafter at their discretion. In addition, the 1961 deed gave the trustees the powers of appropri...

Trusts: Section 57 clarified

Shân Warnock-Smith QC examines the partitioning of ‘Freeston’ trusts in the recent case of Southgate v Sutton ‘The US beneficiaries and the trustees were put in a difficult position as a result of the decision at first instance: the beneficiaries because of their continued exposure to penal US tax and the trustees because they could …
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