Law and Others, Petitioners
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 11 July 1962 |
| Date | 11 July 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 51. |
| Court | Court of Session (Inner House - First Division) |
1ST DIVISION.
TrustVariationApproval on behalf of beneficiariesMarriage contract trustTrust funds contributed by wifeDestination-over to wife's testamentary disponees and to her mother's heirs in mobilibusWhether approval necessary on their behalfRevocation by wifeTrusts (Scotland) Act, 1961 (9 and 10 Eliz. II, cap. 57), sec. 1 (1).
The Trusts (Scotland) Act, 1961, by sec. 1, enacts, inter alia,"(1) In relation to any trust taking effect under any will, settlement or other disposition, the court may if it thinks fit, on the petition of the trustees or any of the beneficiaries, approve on behalf of (b) any person (whether ascertained or not) who may become one of the beneficiaries as being at a future date or on the happening of a future event a person of any specified description or a member of any specified class of persons, so however that this paragraph shall not include any person who is capable of assenting and would be of that description, or a member of that class, as the case may be, if the said date had fallen or the said event had happened at the date of the presentation of the petition to the court, or (c)any person unborn, any arrangement (by whomsoever proposed, and whether or not there is any other person beneficially interested who is capable of assenting thereto) varying or revoking all or any of the trust purposes. "
By an antenuptial contract of marriage it was provided that the marriage contract trust funds were to be held for the wife in alimentary liferent. On her death predeceased by her husband, it was provided that the capital of the trust estate was to be paid to her children or remoter issue. In the event of her not being survived by issue, or of such issue all dying before receiving payment, it was provided that the trust funds were to be paid to such person or persons as the wife might direct by any testamentary writing and, failing such direction, to the nearest hen's in mobilibus of her mother as at the date when the succession opened. The whole trust funds were contributed by the wife. After the death of the husband, a petition was presented, in terms of sec. 1 (1) of the Act, for approval by the Court of an arrangement varying the purposes of the trust. By the arrangement the existing purposes of the trust were to be determined and the trust estate was to be paid to the two children of the marriage. Approval of the arrangement by the Court was sought on behalf of the wife's minor grandchildren, and also on behalf of any further children, or remoter issue, of the two children of the marriage, who might be born after the arrangement took effect and might become entitled to an interest under the marriage contract. The petitioners did not seek approval of the arrangement by the Court on behalf of the wife's testamentary disponees or her mother's heirs in mobilibus.
Held (1) that, since the provisions in favour of the wife's testamentary disponees and her mother's heirs in mobilibusformed no part of the consideration of the marriage, but were purely testamentary, and so revocable by the wife, the Court's approval of the arrangement on behalf of these classes of beneficiaries was unnecessary, and (2) that the arrangement need not contain an express revocation of such provisions.
Mrs Jessie Elizabeth Wood Inglis or Law, Mrs Margaret Wood Law or Rickman and Mrs Mary Landels Law or Bird presented a petition to the Court of Session in terms of section 1 of the Trusts (Scotland) Act, 1961,1 for approval of an arrangement varying the purposes of a trust created by an antenuptial contract of marriage between Mrs Law and the late Robert Oswald Law.
The purposes of the marriage contract, as set forth in the petition, were briefly as follows:"(First) for payment of the trust expenses; (second) for payment of the free revenue of the trust funds to or for behoof of the first-named petitioner for her alimentary liferent use; (third) for payment to the said late Robert Oswald Law if he should survive the first-named petitioner of one-half of the trust revenue for his alimentary liferent use; (fourth) on the death of the...
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Evetts v Galbraith's Trustees
...D. 705. 4 Neame v. Neame's TrusteesUNK, 1956 S.L.T. 57. 5 1962 S.C. 500. 6 9 and 10 Eliz. II, cap. 57. 7 11 R. (H.L.) 10. 8 5 F. 926. 9 1962 S.C. 500. ...