Beith's Trustees v Beith
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 16 December 1949 |
| Date | 16 December 1949 |
| Docket Number | No. 10. |
| Court | Court of Session (Inner House - First Division) |
1ST DIVISON
Marriage-ContractAntenuptial marriage-contractFunds provided by wife held in trust for wife in liferent and issue of the marriage whom failing the wife's appointees or her heirs in feeNo issue or prospect of issue of marriageWhether trust revocable by wife stante matrimonio.
Administration of JusticeAuthority of previous decisions.
By antenuptial contract of marriage a wife conveyed certain funds to trustees to be held by them (a) for payment to the wife of the free annual income, (b) on her death, for payment to the issue of the marriage, and (c) failing issue of the marriage, for payment to such persons as the wife might appoint and, failing appointment, to her heirs in mobilibus. No children were ever born of the marriage and the wife reached an age when there were no prospects of there being children.
Held (diss. Lord keith), that the old common law as laid down in the case ofMenzies v. Murray, (1875) 2 R. 507, that such provisions were irrevocable stante matrimoniobased as it was on the then existing restricted capacity of married women in relation to rights of propertyhad been superseded by subsequent legislation; and that, in the present case, in the absence of any trust purposes requiring the retention of the funds in the hands of the trustees, the wife was entitled to repayment of the funds provided by her although her husband was still alive and the marriage undissolved.
Per the Lord President: "If it is manifest that theratio decidendi upon which a previous decision has rested has been superseded and invalidated by subsequent legislation or from other like cause, that ratio decidendi cease to be binding.
By antenuptial contract of marriage dated 18th January 1915, Helen Margaret Spiers (later Mrs Margaret Spiers or Beith) conveyed and made over to trustees certain funds of the following purposes:" (First) For payment of the expenses of executing the trusts hereby created; (Second) For payment of the free annual income of the wife's trust estate when received to the said Miss Helen Margaret Spiers during all the days of her life and that on her own receipt and discharge alone and free from the control of her said intended husband, Declaring that all income on the wife's trust estate accrued but not paid to and uplifted by the said Miss Helen Margaret Spiers at the date of transference to the said trustees hereunder shall be payable to her in virtue of this provision; (Third) On the death of the said Miss Helen Margaret Spiers there being issue of the said intended marriage then alive the trustees shall hold the wife's trust estate for behoof of such child or children and the issue of such of them as ma die before acquiring a vested interest, leaving issue, and shall account for and pay over the same to the said children and remoter issue at such times and in such shares or proportions and under such restrictions or trusts for the benefit of such child or other as the said Miss Helen Margaret Spiers may appoint by any writing under her hand and failing such appointment of in so far as such appointment may not extend then equally among the said children equally share and share alike the issue of any child who shall have died before acquiring a vested interest taking their parents' share original and accrescing equally among them if more than one: (Fourth) in the event of there being no child or remoter issue of the said intended marriage or of such child or children and remoter issue, if any, all dying without acquiring a vested interest therein, the wife's trust estate and any accumulations of income shall be divisible among such persons and in such manner as the said Miss Helen Margaret Spiers may direct by any writing, testamentary or otherwise, which she may leave clearly expressive of her wishes and intentions and, failing such, the same shall be held in trust for and he payable to her own heirs in mobilibus according to the law of Scotland."
Miss Spiers married John Hay Beith on 19th January 1915. In 1949, there being no children of the marriage, the wife called on the trustees acting under the marriage-contract to make payment to her of the trust funds. The trustees being advised that they were not in safety to do so without the authority of the Court, a special case was presented for the opinion and judgement of the Court of Session. The first parties were the marriage-contract trustees; the second party was the wife; and the third party was the husband. The parties were agreed that, by reason of the wife's age, there was no respect that there would ever by any children of the marriage or any children of any subsequent marriage into which she might enter.
The contentions of the parties were started as follows:
"The first parties contend that in the events which have happened, and although the second party has no children nor any prospect of having children, they are nevertheless bound to continue to hold the wife's trust estate in terms of the said marriage-contract, until the dissolution of the marriage by death or otherwise.
"The second party contends that, upon a sound construction of the said antenuptial contract of marriage and in the events which have occurred, there being a presumption that the second party can have no issue, the whole objects, purposes and interests for which the said contract of marriage provided have failed, and that the first parties are entitled to make immediate payment to her of the capital of the wife's trust estate.
"The third party adopts the contention of the second party."
The question of law for the opinion and judgement of the Court was:"Is the second party entitled to immediate payment of the wife's trust estate?"
At advising on 16th December 1949,
LORD PRESIDENT (Cooper).The essential provisions of this antenuptial marriage-contract are the conveyance by the wife of her estate of trustees (a) for payment of the free annual income to her for her life, free from the control of her husband; (b) on her death, for payment of certain provisions to the issue of the marriage; and (c) failing issue, for payment of the wife's trust estate as she might appoint and, failing such appointment, to her heirs in mobilibus. There are no children of the marriage, and it is agreed that by reason of the age of the spouses there never will be any. It is material to note that there
is no provision imposing alimentary restrictions or otherwise limiting the rights of the wife. The spouses now ask the trustees to denude upon the view that the objects of the trust have failed. The trustees maintain that they must continue to hold the estate until the dissolution of the marriageThe argument for the trustees is rested upon Torry Anderson v. Buchanan,1Pringle v. AndersonUNK,2 and, more particularly, Menzies v. MurrayUNKSC,3 by which it was said we were bound.
In Great Western Railway Co. v. Owners of S.S. MostynELR,4 Lord Dunedin said:"When any tribunal is bound by the judgement of another Court, either superior or co-ordinate, it is, of course, bound by the judgement itself. And if from the opinions delivered it is clearas is the case in most...
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