Re Astor's Settlement Trusts
A non charitable purpose trust is void, because there is no beneficiary who can enforce it and the purposes were uncertain.
Facts
Lord Astor, the owner of The Observer newspaper, set up a trust of shares, the income of which was to be used for various purposes, including the maintenance of good understanding between nations and the preservation of the independence and integrity of newspapers. The purposes were not charitable. The trust was challenged as void.
Legal principle
Roxburgh J held that the trust was void. He said that a trust for non charitable purposes, as opposed to a trust for persons, cannot be valid, because there is no one who can enforce it, and a trust that the court cannot control is not a trust at all. The purposes were also too uncertain to be carried out. The beneficiary principle requires that there be someone with a right to enforce the trust.
Related cases on purpose trusts and unincorporated associations
- Re Bucks Constabulary Widows' and Orphans' Fund Friendly Society (No 2) [1979] 1 WLR 936
- Conservative and Unionist Central Office v Burrell [1982] 1 WLR 522
- Re Dean (1889) 41 Ch D 552
- Re Denley's Trust Deed [1969] 1 Ch 373
- Re Endacott [1960] Ch 232
- Re Grant's Will Trusts [1980] 1 WLR 360
- Hanchett-Stamford v Attorney General [2008] EWHC 330 (Ch), [2009] Ch 173
- Re Hooper [1932] 1 Ch 38
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