Gilmour v Coats
A gift to a community of cloistered nuns who devoted themselves to prayer was not charitable, because there was no proof of public benefit.
Facts
A fund was settled on trust for the purposes of a Carmelite priory, a community of cloistered nuns who devoted themselves to prayer and meditation, and did not engage in any activities outside the convent. The question was whether the trust was charitable as being for the advancement of religion.
Legal principle
The House of Lords held that the trust was not charitable. Lord Simonds said that, for a trust for the advancement of religion to be charitable, it must be for the public benefit, and the benefit must be capable of proof in a court of law. The benefit said to arise from the nuns' intercessory prayer was not capable of proof, and the edification of the public by the example of the nuns' lives was too vague and intangible. The nuns themselves did not form a section of the public.
Related cases on charitable trusts
- Chichester Diocesan Fund and Board of Finance Inc v Simpson [1944] AC 341
- Re Compton [1945] Ch 123
- Dingle v Turner [1972] AC 601
- Re Finger's Will Trusts [1972] Ch 286
- Re Harwood [1936] Ch 285
- Re Hetherington [1990] Ch 1
- Income Tax Special Purposes Commissioners v Pemsel [1891] AC 531
- IRC v Baddeley [1955] AC 572
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