In a question under a settlement between the fiar and liferenter, the rents derived from mines open at the date of the settlement belong to the liferenter, and it is immaterial whether the mines were opened by the settlor or by his predecessors in the estate.
A wife, by antenuptial marriage-contract in English form conveyed certain lands belonging to her to trustees, who were directed to sell the lands on the request of the spouses or the survivor of them, or after the death of the survivor, at their own discretion. The trustees were to hold the proceeds arising from the sale, and pay the ‘annual income’ to the wife during her life, and after her death, on certain conditions, to her husband. After the death of the husband and wife the trustees were to hold the trust estate and annual income thereof for the children of the marriage as the parents should appoint.
It was further provided, that until the estate should be sold the trustees should have power ‘in the meantime to lease the unsold parts . . for the best rent that can reasonably be gotten, and to hold the net proceeds of such sale, and the net rents and profits of the said estate until sale’ to the persons, and for the purposes to which the annual income of the money arising from the sale of the estate would be paid under the trust, ‘with such powers of leasing the lands and hereditaments, and other powers necessary and expedient in the execution of the trust.’ There was one child of the marriage.
The property settled contained opened stone quarries which had been worked at intervals for over a hundred years, but none of which had been worked for a period of four years prior to the execution of the settlement. The trustees did not sell the property, but leased certain of the above quarries during the lifetime of the spouses.
Held that the rents and royalties paid under the lease fell to the liferenter as income, and were not to be accumulated as capital for the benefit of the fiars.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Halsbury), and Lords Macnaghten, Morris, Shand, and Brampton
Citations:
[1899] UKHL 618, 37 SLR 618
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Trusts
Updated: 24 November 2022; Ref: scu.631844