Goulding v James
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 07 February 1997 |
| Date | 07 February 1997 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Wills - testator's intention - extrinsic evidence
Extrinsic evidence as to the original intentions of the testator when making his will was an irrelevant consideration when deciding whether to exercise the court's jurisdiction to approve a trust variation arrangement for the benefit of unborn descendants under section 1(1)(c) of the Variation of Trusts Act 1958.
The Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Butler-Sloss, Lord Justice Mummery and Sir Ralph Gibson) so held on December 10 in allowing an appeal by the plaintiffs from a refusal of Mr Justice Laddie to approve an arrangement varying the trusts of a will under section 1(1)(c) in the light of evidence from the trustees that the effect of the arrangement on the adult beneficiaries would be contrary to the wishes of the testatrix.
LORD JUSTICE MUMMERY said that the court's discretion should be exercised having regard to all the relevant considerations in the statutory context.
The flaw in the judge's refusal was that on the supposed width of the application of In re Steed's Will TrustsELR ([1960] Ch 407), which his Lordship did not...
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...as beneficiaries absolutely. See Oxford Dictionary of Law (J Law & E A Martin eds) (OUP, 7th Ed, 2009) at p 488. 19 Goulding v James [1997] 2 All ER 239 at 247, per Mummery LJ. 20 Variation of Trusts Act 1958 (c 53) (UK). 21 This includes the power to create a longer statutory or common law......