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: 1900 To: 1929
This page lists 17 cases, and was prepared on 20 May 2019.
Re Walker [1901] 1 Ch 897
1901
Trusts, Charity
1 Citers
In Re Estlin; 1903 - (1903) 72 LJ Ch 687
In re Goode [1905] 2 Ch 60
1905
Charity
Gifts made for the pormotion of the efficiency of armed services were charitable in nature.
1 Citers
Attorney-General v Mathieson; CA 1907 - [1907] 2 Ch 383
Murdoch's Trustees v Weir and Others [1908] UKHL 335; 45 SLR 335
6 Feb 1908
HL
Lord Chancellor (Loreburn), Lord Macnaghten, Lord Robertson, and Lord Atkinson
Wills and Probate, Charity
A testator directed that the residue of his estate should be employed in the relief of persons who, with other qualifications, had "shown practical sympathy in the pursuits of science."
Per Lord Chancellor-"All that can be required is that the description of the classes to be benefited shall be sufficiently certain to enable men of common sense to carry out the expressed wishes of the testator. . . Persons who have shown practical sympathy in an object obviously are persons who have given time or money, or made some sort of sacrifice to further it. I am satisfied the trustees, or failing them the Court, would find no difficulty in giving effect to the bequest."
[ Bailii ]
Re Faraker; Faraker v Durell [1912] 2 Ch 488
1912
CA
Cozens-Hardy MR, Farwell and Kennedy LJJ
Charity
A gift had been made to a named charity. No purposes were mentioned. Held: The gift had not lapsed as a result of the Charity Commissioners amalgamating the charity with other charities, to be administered by a newly constituted body of trustees, and significantly expanding its purposes. The original class of persons intended to be benefited by the charity, poor widows, continued to be benefited by the charity in its amalgamated form. The charity never ceased to exist. There was therefore no lapse.
Farwell LJ said: "In all these cases one has to consider not so much the means to the end as the charitable end which is in view, and so long as that charitable end is well established the means are only machinery, and no alteration of the machinery can destroy the charitable trust for the benefit of which the machinery is provided."
Kennedy LJ said: "but the question which I have felt some doubt about is, if the continuance - that word has been used throughout - of a charity is requisite, what is the essential thing to constitute the continuance of that charity as the subject of a charitable gift in a will? . . no case has been shewn to me in which an endowed charity has been treated as having, so to speak, lost its life by reason of the exercise of the perfectly competent authority under parliamentary sanction of the Charity Commissioners, or the equally competent authority of this Court, under which its funds have come to be applied somewhat differently to the way in which they were applied under the original foundation . . It seems to be the law, that an endowed charity, to whatever purpose its funds are devoted, if and so long as they are devoted to some charitable purpose under some duly authorized scheme, remains still existent so as to draw to it a sum of money given by a will for, presumably, the same purpose as the original charity."
In re Orphan Working School and Alexandra Orphanage's Contract; 1912 - [1912] 2 Ch 167; [1912] 81 LJ Ch 627; (1912) 107 LT 254
Dunne v Byrne; 1912 - [1912] AC 407
In re Verrall; National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or National Beauty v Attorney-General (1916) 1 Ch 100; [1914-15] All ER Rep 546
1914
ChD
Ashbury J
Charity
A national trust for places of historic interest and national beauty was considered to be charitable as being among other purposes beneficial to the community.
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children v Scottish National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; HL 1915 - [1915] AC 207
Wordie's Trustees v Wordie [1916] UKHL 291; 53 SLR 291
28 Feb 1916
HL
Lord Chancellor (Buckmaster), Lord Kinnear, Lord Atkinson, and Lord Shaw
Charity, Wills and Probate, Trusts
Held that a direction to trustees, duly appointed, "to pay over the balance or residue of my estates to or for behoof of such charitable purposes as I may think proper to name in any writing, however informal, which I may leave, but failing my leaving such writings, then to such charitable institutions or societies which exist for the benefit of women and children requiring aid or assistance of whatever nature, but said institutions and societies to be under the management of Protestants"-the testator having left no such writing-was not void from uncertainty, neither on the ground that no power of selection was expressly conferred on the trustees, nor on the ground that the objects to be benefited were insufficiently pointed out.
[ Bailii ]
Re Mellody [1918] 1 Ch 228
1918
Eve J
Charity
A gift to the schoolchildren of Turton was as valid a charitable gift as a gift to the inhabitants of the Borough would be. The gift was a gift "for purposes beneficial to a section of the community"; and the schoolchildren themselves were "a very important section of the community".
1 Citers
Dorward's House of Refuge [1920] UKHL 783 - 1; 57 SLR 783 - 1
26 Jul 1920
HL
Major G. M'Micking, M.P. (Chairman), the Marquis of Linlithgow, Lord Elphinstone, and Major Wm. Murray, M.P.-at Glasgow
Charity
The managers of Dorward's House of Refuge, Montrose, a charitable institution founded in 1838, promoted this Order to regulate the constitution of the management committee and also the classes of person to whom the benefits of the institution might be granted. The present management committee consisted of, 12 members nominated by the founder's testamentary trustees, 4 by the Town Council of Montrose, 4 by the Kirk Session of Montrose, and 4 by the heritors of the landward parish of Montrose, and this was in accord with a private Act of Parliament of 1851. Recently the Parish Councils of Montrose and of Craig, the creations of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894, had sought representation on the ground that the present state of matters was not in accord with the intentions of the founders. The Parish Councils had also objected to inmates having been received from a very wide area. The questions between the parties were being litigated in the Court of Session. The Order proposed to stereotype the existing state of matters and practice.
After hearing counsel the Commissioners intimated that they were unable to deal with the merits of the Order in respect there was pending litigation.
[ Bailii ]
Campbell's Trustees v Campbell [1920] UKHL 69
30 Nov 1920
HL
Lord Chancellor, Viscount Finlay, Lord Dunedin, Lord Atkinson, and Lord Shaw
Wills and Probate, Charity
A testator directed his trustees in the event of there being any residue of his estate "to apply the same for behoof of such charitable or other deserving institutions in connection with the city of Glasgow as my said trustees shall think fit."
Held (rev. judgment of the Second Division, diss. Lord Dundas) that the bequest was void from uncertainty.
[ Bailii ]
Verge v Somerville; PC 1924 - [1924] AC 496
In re Gray [1925] 1 Ch 362
1925
Charity
Gifts made exclusively for the purpose of promoting the efficiency of the armed forces are good charitable gifts.
1 Citers
Inland Revenue Commissioners v Yorkshire Agricultural Society [1928] 1 KB 611
1928
Atkin, LJ
Charity
If a substantial part of the objects of a body of persons is to benefit its own members, the body of persons is not established for charitable purposes only. Atkin LJ considered the problems arising from the fact that the Association had more than one purpose: "First of all it is said: No, this Society was in fact formed for the purpose of giving benefit to its members; it is nothing but a club for the mutual advantage of the members of the club. If that were so, I agree that the claim of the Society would fail, both because it could not be said that the Society was established for a charitable purpose and because it certainly could not be said that it was established for a charitable purpose only. There can be no doubt that a society formed for the purpose merely of benefiting its own members, though it may be to the public advantage that its members should be benefited by being educated or having their aesthetic tastes improved or whatever the object may be, would not be for a charitable purpose, and if it were a substantial part of the object that it should benefit its members I should think that it would not be established for a charitable purpose only. But, on the other hand, if the benefit given to its members is only given to them with a view of giving encouragement and carrying out the main purpose, which is a charitable purpose, then I think the mere fact that the members are benefited in the course of promoting the charitable purpose would not prevent the society being established for charitable purposes only."
1 Citers