swarb.co.uk - law index
These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.
Charity - From: 1849 To: 1899
This page lists 35 cases, and was prepared on 20 May 2019.
Re: Shrewsbury Grammar School (1849) 1 Mac and G 324
1849
Charity
Trustees of the school had accumulated income in excess of what was required to achieve the objects of the charitable trust, and asked the court how to apply them. Having upheld the contention that what was described as Sir S. Romilly's Act conferred sufficient jurisdiction to deal with the matter, the Lord Chancellor continued: "...it is of constant occurrence that the court is asked to inquire whether an Act of Parliament shall be applied for. If it is in regard to such a matter as this court has no jurisdiction to alter, or which is already provided for by Act of Parliament, it is obvious it requires the authority of Parliament in such cases to enable the trustees to depart from that which is their prescribed duty, according to the rule existing."
1 Citers
Ashton v Langdale (1851) 4 De G and S 402
1851
Charity
Inference of charitable purposes.
1 Citers
Beloved Wilkes' Charity, Re [1851] EWHC Ch J52; (1851) 3 Mac and G 440; [1851] EngR 375; (1851) 42 ER 330
28 Apr 1851
ChD
Trusts, Charity
Trustees are under no general duty to explain the exercise by them of a discretion.
1 Citers
[ Bailii ] - [ Commonlii ]
Re Hall's Charity [1851] EngR 441; (1851) 14 Beav 115; (1851) 51 ER 230
7 May 1851
Charity
[ Commonlii ]
In The Matter Of Nightingale's Charity [1853] EngR 368 (A); (1853) 10 Hare App 39
21 Mar 1853
Charity
[ Commonlii ]
Forbes v Forbes (1854) 18 Beav 552; (1854) Kay 341
1854
Charity
General Forbes died. It became necessary to decide what was his domicile at the date of death. He had been born in Scotland, but then served for 35 years in India, before retirng to live in London. Held: The domicile in India was a domicile of choice, and it was easier to show a change of domicile of choice than for a domicile of origin. The court declined to make an order with respect to a case of a gift to build a bridge over the River Don in Scotland. This was in effect an issue of Scottish charity law, and the Scottish courts would have jurisdiction.
1 Citers
Attorney-General v Sturge (1854) 19 Beav 597
1854
Sir John Romilly MR
Charity, Wills and Probate
The testatrix had left funds to support a school in Genoa. Held: The courts have no authority to make a scheme where the trustees would not be within the jurisdiction of the English courts.
1 Citers
The Attorney-General v St Cross Hospital [1854] EngR 303; (1854) 18 Beav 475; (1854) 52 ER 187
24 Feb 1854
Charity
The Attorney-General attends the settlement of a scheme of a charity to protect the interests of all, and the Court refused to allow a member of a corporation, consisting of a master and thirteen brethren, to attend the settlement of a scheme of the chanty, even at his own expense.
[ Commonlii ]
Forbes v Forbes [1854] EngR 317; (1854) 18 Beav 552; (1854) 52 ER 216
3 Mar 1854
Wills and Probate, Charity
[ Commonlii ]
The Vestryman of The Parish of St Marylebone In Middlesex v The Zoological Society Of London; 31-May-1854 - [1854] EngR 566; (1854) 3 El and Bl 807; (1854) 118 ER 1343
In re Ford's Charity [1855] EngR 661 (A); (1855) 3 Drew 324
6 Jul 1855
Sir Richard Kindersley V-C
Charity
A new scheme for the development of a new school which had not previously been considered by the court did not amount to a matter pending, even though another scheme in respect of the same charity funds had been so considered. He held that it was therefore necessary for the Charity Commissioners' sanction to be obtained in respect of the application to the court. A matter pending, for the purposes of the Act, meant a continuation of something directed by the court.
Charitable Trusts Act 1853 17
1 Citers
[ Commonlii ]
Scott v The Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor of the Parish of St Martin in the Fields [1855] EngR 773; (1855) 5 El and Bl 558; (1855) 119 ER 588
10 Nov 1855
Rating, Charity
[ Commonlii ]
St. Mary Magdalene Oxford v Attorney General [1857] EngR 688; (1857) 6 HLC 189; (1857) 10 ER 1267; [1857] UKPC 1
18 Jun 1857
PC
Lord Cranworth LC
Charity
[ Commonlii ] - [ Bailii ]
Spurgin v White [1860] EngR 1302; (1860) 2 Giff 473; (1860) 66 ER 198
21 Dec 1860
Charity
[ Commonlii ]
The Berkhamstead School Case (1865) LR 1 Eq.102
1865
Page-Wood V-C
Charity
The school was regulated inter alia by a statute of Edward VI. Held: The court approved a scheme for its further regulation which permitted the charging of fees for all pupils, notwithstanding that the statute provided that some boys should be educated entirely gratuitously. While the scheme so approved was contrary to the provisions of the founding statute the variation was justified because the original purposes of the statute had become impractical.
1 Citers
The Attorney-General, At The Relation Of Joseph Greenhill v Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; Trinity College, Oxford, And Frederick Greenhill [1865] EngR 431; (1865) 34 Beav 654; (1865) 55 ER 788
4 May 1865
Charity, Litigation Practice
Lord Chelmsford LC said, of an argument by that college that the leave of the Charity Commissioners ought to have been obtained to the plaintiff's proceedings but had not been, that: "The objection if persisted in must prevail, but in that case [he] would give leave to apply to the commissioners, and he would suspend the decree for that purpose."
1 Citers
[ Commonlii ]
Re Duncan; CA 1867 - (1867) 2 LR Ch App 356
In re Sir Robert Peel's School at Tamworth (1868) 3 Ch App 543
1868
CA
Charity
Income under a trust was, until exercise of a power of revocation, if valid, subject to a mandatory trust for expenditure on the maintenance of a school. Held: Unless and until the power of revocation was exercised, the trust was a valid charitable trust. Any revocation would not be retrospective, and pending revocation the income was to be devoted to exclusively charitable purposes. The judge had therefore, been wrong to conclude that the fact that the capital of the trust is held in trust for a non-charitable purpose (the "stakeholder function") deprived the Trust of charitable status quoad the income of the Trust.
1 Citers
National Society v School Board of London (1874) 18 Eq 608
1874
Land, Charity
The National Society raised large sums by subscription and made grants in favour of schools in which children were to be instructed (in addition to reading, writing and arithmetic) in holy scripture and in the liturgy and catechism of the established church. Former owners of land conveyed under the 1841 Act had only the remedy of complaint to the Educational Board.
School Sites Act 1841
1 Citers
Attorney General v Webster; 1875 - (1875) LR 20 Eq 483
Re Camden's Charity; 1881 - [1881] 28 ChD 310
Glen v Gregg (1882) 21 ChD 513
1882
Charity
1 Citers
Goodman v Mayor of Saltash; HL 1882 - (1882) 7 App Cas 633
Andrews v Barnes (1888) 39 Ch D 133
1888
Fry LJ
Costs, Charity
The parish vicar and his churchwardens brought an action to recover a small sum paid to the members of a local committee for charitable purposes, saying the gift had been made subject to a condition which it proved impossible to fulfil. Held: The plaintiffs failed. The action was unjustified because of the need not to spend funds in this way, and they were ordered to pay the defendants' costs. The court related the practice as to costs in Chancery.
1 Cites
1 Citers
Rendall v Blair (1890) 45 Ch D 139
1890
Bowen LJ
Litigation Practice, Charity
Where a statute requires leave to commence proceedings to be granted, a failure to obtain such consent does not automatically render the proceedings a nullity.
Bowen LJ said: "this section is not framed in the way in which sections are framed when it is intended that some preliminary steps should be taken before the action is maintainable at all" and "It directs what ought to be done. Unless the duty is complied with by the litigant the court must hold its hand. But it does not oblige the court to close the gates of mercy upon the applicant, but enables it to stay proceedings until that consent, which as a matter of duty ought to be obtained in the first instance, is obtained at last."
The legislature knows well enough how to provide that leave shall be a strict condition precedent to valid proceedings being issued and that clear words are to be used if that is intended, words perhaps even requiring a provision for the dismissal of the proceedings if the condition precedent is not satisfied. Without some such clear language being used the provision can be taken to be directory.
Charitable Trusts Act 1853 17
1 Citers
Institution of Civil Engineers v Forrest; 1890 - [1890] 15 AC 334
Income Tax Special Commissioners v Pemsel; HL 20-Jul-1891 - [1891] AC 531; [1891] UKHL 1
Income Tax Special Purposes Commissioners v Pemsel [1891] UKHL TC - 3 - 53; [1891] AC 531; 3 TC 53
20 Jul 1891
HL
Income Tax, Charity
Income tax, exemption. Charitable Purposes. Lands are vested in trustees in trust to apply the rents and profits in maintaining (1) the missionary establishments among heathen nations of the Moravian Church, (2) a school for the children of ministers and missionaries, and (8) certain religious establishments denominated choir houses.
Held, by Lords Watson, Herschell, Macnaghten, and Morris (Halsbury, L.C. and Lord Bramwell dissenting) that the trust is one for "charitable purposes" within the meaning of the Income Tax Acts; in those Acts the words charitable purposes are to be interpreted, not according to their popular meaning, but according to their technical legal meaning.
[ Bailii ]
In re Clergy Orphan Corporation; CA 1894 - [1894] 3 Ch 145
Free Grammar School (Swansea) v Charity Commissioners for England and Wales (Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889) [1894] UKPC 23
25 Apr 1894
PC
Charity
[ Bailii ]
Re Nottage [1895] 2 Ch 649
1895
Charity
The law does not regard the promotion of any particular sport, for its own sake, as charitable.
1 Citers
Attorney-General v Governors of Christ's Hospital [1896] 1 Ch 879
1896
Chitty J
Charity
The Attorney-General proposed a scheme to except certain endowments from the 1869 Act. They would be made over to another governing body in augmentation of the endowments held by them subject to the provisions of that Act. Held: The court declined. Chitty J said: "I hold that it is beyond the jurisdiction of the Court to sanction the Attorney-General's scheme in the face of the opposition of the existing governing body. Their title is founded on Royal Charter, and is established by Act of Parliament. To whatever lengths the Court may have gone, it has never assumed legislative authority: it has never by a stroke of the pen at one and the same time revoked a Royal Charter and repealed an Act of Parliament. It has never ousted from its rights of administering the charitable trusts of such a body as the present governors against their will, and that, too, in a case where no breach of trust is charged." To establish such a scheme as that submitted by the Attorney-General nothing less than an Act of Parliament would suffice.
Endowed Schools Act 1869
1 Citers
In re Macduff; Macduff v Macduff (1896) 2 Ch 451
1896
CA
Lindley LJ
Charity
Lindley LJ qualified the judgment of Lord Macnaghten in Pemsel: "Now Sir Samuel Romilly did not mean, and I am certain Lord Macnaghten did not mean, to say that every object of public general utility must necessarily be a charity. Some may be, and some may not be." Applications of monies for public philanthropic or benevolent purposes would be for the public good but would not necessarily be legally charitable.
1 Cites
1 Citers
Nash and Another v Charity Commissioners Colchester Grammar School (Whitehall Court Chamber) [1898] UKPC 27
14 May 1898
PC
Charity
[ Bailii ]
In re Lacy; Royal General Theatrical Fund Association v Kydd; 1899 - [1899] 2 Ch 149