Re Keen
A half secret trust fails where the terms were communicated in a way inconsistent with the will, or after the will was made.
Facts
Harry Keen left £10,000 by will to two trustees, to be held on trust and disposed of by them among such persons as may be notified by me to them during my lifetime. Before he made the will, he had given one of the trustees a sealed envelope containing the name of the beneficiary, which was not to be opened until after his death. The question was whether a valid half secret trust had been created.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that the trust failed. Lord Wright MR said that the will referred to future communication, which was not allowed, because it would enable the testator to make an unwitnessed disposition in the future. The sealed envelope had been handed over before the will was made, which was inconsistent with the words of the will, and evidence of a prior communication could not be admitted to contradict the will. The money therefore fell into residue.
Related cases on secret trusts and mutual wills
- Blackwell v Blackwell [1929] AC 318
- Re Boyes (1884) 26 Ch D 531
- Re Cleaver [1981] 1 WLR 939
- Re Gardner (No 2) [1923] 2 Ch 230
- Re Goodchild [1997] 1 WLR 1216
- Healey v Brown [2002] EWHC 1405 (Ch), [2002] WTLR 849
- Kasperbauer v Griffith [2000] WTLR 333
- McCormick v Grogan (1869) LR 4 HL 82
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