Testatrix, a married woman, bequeathed the residue of all her property, consisting of impure and pure personalty belonging to her separate use, to be divided equally between four religious institutions, two of them being the Dominican convent at C, an institution consisting of Roman Catholic females living together by mutual agreement in a state of celibacy, under a common superior, for the purpose of sanctifying their own souls by prayer and pious contemplation, and the Sisters of Charity of St. Paul at S0, an institution composed of Roman Catholic women living together by mutual consent, whose primary object was personal sanctification, and who, as a means thereto, employed themselves in the exercise of works of piety and charity in teaching the poor and nursing the sick ; and directed that the payments should be made to the superior for the time being respectively.
Held: that the community of sisters at S0 was a voluntary association and a charitable institution, and that the bequest to them was good as to the pure personalty:
Held: also, that the bequest to the Dominican convent at C was neither within the letter nor the spirit of 43 Eliz. c. 4 ; that it was good both as to the pure and impure personalty; and that it was not void on the ground of perpetuity. Semble, religious purposes are charitable only when religious services tend directly or indirectly towards the instruction or edification of the public.
Wickens VC said: ‘On the Act [sc. the Statute of ‘ Elizabeth] unaffected by authority I should certainly hold that the gift to the Dominican Convent is neither within the letter nor the spirit of it; and no decision has been referred to which compels me to adopt a different conclusion. A voluntary association of women for the purpose of working out their own salvation by religious exercises and self-denial seems to me to have none of the requisites of a charitable institution, whether the word ‘ charitable’ is used in its popular sense or in its legal sense. It is said, in some of the cases, that religious purposes are charitable, but that can only be true as to religious services tending directly or indirectly towards the instruction or the edification of the public; an annuity to an individual, so long as he spent his time in retirement and constant devotion, would not be charitable, nor would a gift to ten persons, so long as they lived together in retirement and performed acts of devotion, be charitable. Therefore the gift to the Dominican Convent is not, in my opinion, a gift on a charitable trust.’
Wickens VC
(1871) LR 12 Eq 574, (1871) 24 LT 869, (1871) 36 JP 244, (1871) 19 WR 1055, [1871] UKLawRpEq 152
Commonlii
England and Wales
Cited by:
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.
Charity
Updated: 19 November 2021; Ref: scu.653054