On an appeal from New South Wales, The Board considered the validity of a gift ‘to the trustees’ of the Repatriation Fund or other similar fund for the benefit of New South Wales returned soldiers’.
Held: Trusts for education and religion do not require any qualification of poverty to be introduced to give them validity and generally poverty is not a necessary qualification in trusts beneficial to the community. However, Lord Wrenbury said: ‘To ascertain whether a gift constitutes a valid charitable trust so as to escape being void on the ground of perpetuity, a first enquiry must be whether it is public-whether it is for the benefit of the community or of an appreciably important class of the community. The inhabitants of a parish or town, or any particular class of such inhabitants, may, for instance, be the objects of such a gift, but private individuals, or a fluctuating body of private individuals, cannot.’
Judges:
Lord Wrenbury
Citations:
[1924] AC 496
Jurisdiction:
Australia
Cited by:
Cited – Baddeley (Trustees of the Newtown Trust) v Inland Revenue Commissioners HL 17-Feb-1955
Land had been conveyed to trustees for the moral, social and physical well-being of a community. The court considered whether the trust was charitable in nature, where it was said that it confined the benefits to a class of people who do not . .
Cited – In Re Strakosch 1949
The court may construe a gift as impliedly limited to charitable purposes. Lord Greene MR said: ‘In Williams’ Trustees v Inland Revenue Commissioners the House of Lords has laid down very clearly that in order to come within Lord Macnaghten’s fourth . .
Cited – Re Resch’s Will Trusts; Vera Caroline Le Crasv Perpetual Trustee Company Limited PC 19-Oct-1967
(New South Wales) The testator left a series of testamentary provisions including gifts which worked cumulatively. Lord Wilberforce discussed the breadth of evidence admissible in the probate court: ‘The principles which ought to be applied on such . .
Cited – Oppenheim v Tobacco Securities Trust Co Ltd HL 13-Dec-1950
Trustees were directed to apply certain income in providing for ‘the education of children of employees or former employees’ of a British limited company or any of its subsidiary or allied companies. The number of eligible employees was over . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Charity, Commonwealth
Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.264008