Subscribers to an annuity fund asserted claims to surplus money belonging to the fund. The trustees took advice in relation to that claim. One of the subscribers filed a Summons to compel the production of the legal opinion.
Held: Where there is a conflict of interest between the trustee and the beneficiaries and the trustee procures an opinion of counsel for his own protection, the beneficiaries are not entitled to inspect the opinion.
James VC said: ‘There is a difference between an opinion taken by a trustee on his own behalf, and one taken on behalf of the trust estate. In this case the opinion was taken by the trustees on their own behalf, after litigation had been commenced, and with a view to resisting future litigation. It is absurd to say that that is taken by a trustee on behalf of his cestuis que trustent. You might as well ask for production of the instructions given by the defendants to their counsel in this present case. The application must be refused.’
Judges:
James VC
Citations:
(1870) 18 WR 312
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Dawson-Damer and Others v Taylor Wessing Llp and Others ChD 6-Aug-2015
The clamants sought orders under the 1998 Act for disclosure of documents about them by the defendant solicitors and others. The defendants said that the request would require the consideration of a very large number of documents, considering in . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Legal Professions, Trusts
Updated: 08 August 2022; Ref: scu.551065