A truster, who was a partner in a firm of coalmasters, gave his trustees power by his trust-disposition and settlement to represent him in the firm, and also to be parties to any new lease which the firm might enter into, and thus to continue the partnership inde finitely.
The trustees were directed to allow his widow the liferent use of his house, and such allowance as they should consider necessary for the maintenance of herself and of such daughters and their children as might be living with her, and were empowered to make advances during the currency of the trust to his children out of the shares of his estate ‘effeiring’ to them. They were then directed, ‘on the dissolution and winding-up of the said firm, in the event of the predecease of my said wife, and, if she then survives, on her death,’ to divide his estate into four equal shares, and to pay one share to each of his children, A, B, C, and D, ‘or to their respective heirs.’
The testator was survived by his wife, and the trustees represented him in the firm, and joined in taking new leases.
Held (aff. judgment of First Division, but on different grounds) that the fee of the truster’s estate vested a morte in the truster’s children, and that the survivorship clause only operated in favour of heirs in the event of a child dying in the lifetime of the truster.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Halsbury), and Lords Watson, Shand, and Davey
Citations:
[1899] UKHL 959, 36 SLR 959
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Trusts
Updated: 24 November 2022; Ref: scu.631835