Gold v Hill
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 17 July 1998 |
| Date | 17 July 1998 |
| Court | Chancery Division |
Chancery Division
Before Mr Justice Carnwath
Trusts - nomination of beneficiary under life insurance policy - analogous to secret trust
A nomination of a beneficiary under a life insurance policy when the insured did not intend that nominee to take in a personal capacity, but had asked him to apply any funds arising under the policy to look after the insured's family, was analogous to a secret trust.
However, the requirements of section 53(1)(c) of the Law of Property Act 1925 did not need to be complied with since a nomination did not operate as a disposition of an equitable interest.
Mr Justice Carnwath so held in a reserved judgment in the Chancery Division when (i) granting the claim of the first plaintiff, Mr Maxwell Gold, that a nomination form signed by the deceased, Anthony David Gilbert, which named the plaintiff as beneficiary under a life insurance and accident benefit plan taken out by the deceased, was a valid nomination and (ii) making a
declaration that Mr Gold held any moneys paid to him under the plan as constructive trustee for Mrs Carol Gilbert, the second plaintiff, to apply those moneys for the use and benefit of herself and her children.
The defendant, Mr Michael Hill, was the deceased's solicitor and executor of his will.
The deceased had nominated Mr Gold as beneficiary under the plan shortly before he left the UK for Nigeria, where he died. He had given Mr Gold's relationship as executor, although Mr Gold was never a named executor of any will made by the deceased.
Mr Gold claimed that at a dinner at the Beverley Arms hotel just before his departure, Mr Gilbert had informed him that he had nominated him under the plan and asked that he should look after Mr Gilbert's common law wife and her children if anything should happen to him. Mr Gilbert died and a dispute arose as to the validity of the nomination.
Mr Sidney Ross for the plaintiffs; Mr Vivian Chapman for the defendant.
MR JUSTICE CARNWATH reviewed the relevant cases relating to nominations and secret trusts. His Lordship agreed with the plaintiff that the analogy with secret trusts was useful.
The nomination, like a testamentary disposition, did not transfer or create any interest until death. It was consistent with the principle inBlackwell v BlackwellELR ([1929] AC 318) that the nominee should take under the rules of the policy, but then be required to "apply it as the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Pert v McCaffrey
...Dollar Land (Cumbernauld) Ltd v CIN Properties Ltd 1998 SC (HL) 90; 1998 SLT 992; 1998 SCLR 929; [1998] 3 EGLR 79; [1998] 51 EG 83; The Times, 24 August 1998 Glasgow District Council (City of) v Morrison, McChlery & Co 1985 SC 52; 1985 SLT 44 Lawrence Building Co Ltd v Lanarkshire County Co......
-
Insurgency, Proxy, and Dependence: How Hezbollah's Ideology Prevails Over its Interest in its Relationship with Iran
...in Africa,”Perspectives on Terrorism 6, no. 3 (2012): 45–56.72. Sebastian Rotella, “Jungle hub for world’s outlaws,”Los Angeles Times, 24 August 1998,http://articles.latimes.com/1998/aug/24/news/mn-16046(accessed 22 March 2023).73. Daniel Odin Shaw, “Beyond necessity: Hezbollah and the inte......