Gift for Masses not Void for Superstition
An Irish Roman Catholic testator, domiciled in England, bequeathed 200 pounds to Westminster Cathedral for masses, and 200 pounds and his residuary personal Estate to the Jesuit Fathers of Farm Street, again for masses. The next of kin contended that the bequests to the Jesuit Fathers were void under Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, as gifts to a monastic order.
Held: A bequest of personal Estate for masses for the dead is not void as a gift to superstitious uses. The contention of the next of kin as to the requests of the Jesuit Fathers failed per Lord Atkinson), for insufficiency of evidence as to the Constitution of the community and (Lord Birkenhead Chancellor) on the further ground that the point was not raised by the text by the next of kin in their cases, and (per Lord Buckmaster) because these bequests were giving not to a monastic order but to individual members of a particular order resident at a named place, and were impressed with no trust for the benefit of the order.
Lord Buckmaster discussed the construction of statutes and said: ‘Firstly, the construction of a statute of doubtful meaning, once laid down and accepted for a long time, ought not to be altered unless your Lordships could say positively that it was wrong and productive of inconvenience.
Secondly, that decisions upon which title to property depends, or which by establishing principles of construction or otherwise form the basis of contracts, ought to receive the same protection;
Thirdly, decisions that affect the general conduct of affairs, so that their alteration would mean that taxes had been unlawfully imposed, or exemption unlawfully obtained, payments needlessly made, or the position of the public materially affected, ought in the same way to continue.’
Lord Birkenhead Chancellor, Lord Buckmaster, Lord Atkinson
[1919] AC 815
Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Dayani v London Borough of Bromley TCC 25-Nov-1999
LA Tenant liable for permissive waste
The local authority was tenant of properties which it sub-licensed to homeless persons for three years was liable for having allowed the properties to deteriorate. It was claimed that they were liable for permissive waste as tenants for a fixed . .
Cited – Gilmour v Coats HL 1949
Prayers Alone did not make Convent Charitable
A trust to apply the income of a fund for all or any of the purposes of a community of Roman Catholic Carmelite nuns living in seclusion and spending their lives in prayer, contemplation and penance, was not charitable because it could not be shown . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Litigation Practice
Updated: 17 November 2021; Ref: scu.196845