Mortmain and Charitable Uses Act 1888

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1888 c. 42
Year1888


Mortmain and Charitable Uses Act, 1888

(51 & 52 Vict.) CHAPTER 42.

An Act to consolidate and amend the Law relating to Mortmain and to the disposition of Land for Charitable Uses.

[13th August 1888]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

I Mortmain.

PART I.

Mortmain.

S-1 Forfeiture on unlawful assurance or acquisition in mortmain.

1 Forfeiture on unlawful assurance or acquisition in mortmain.

(1)1.—(1.) Land shall not be assured to or for the benefit of, or acquired by or on behalf of, any corporation in mortmain, otherwise than under the authority of a licence from Her Majesty the Queen, or of a statute for the time being in force, and if any land is so assured otherwise than as aforesaid the land shall be forfeited to Her Majesty from the date of the assurance, and Her Majesty may enter on and hold the land accordingly:

(2) (2.) Provided as follows:

(i.) if the land is held directly of a mesne lord under Her Majesty, that mesne lord may enter on and hold the land at any time within twelve months from the date of the assurance:

(ii.) if the land is held of more than one mesne lord in gradation under Her Majesty, the superior of those mesne lords may enter on and hold the land at any time within six months after the time at which the right of the inferior lord to enter on the land expires:

(iii.) If a mesne lord is at the time when his right of entry accrues under this Act a lunatic or otherwise under incapacity, his right of entry may be exercised by his guardian or the committee of his estate, or by such person as Her Majesty's High Court of Justice may appoint in that behalf:

(iv.) If the right of entry under this Act is exercised by or on behalf of a mesne lord, the land shall be forfeited to that lord from the date of the assurance instead of to Her Majesty.

S-2 Power to Her Majesty to grant licences in mortmain.

2 Power to Her Majesty to grant licences in mortmain.

2. It shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen, if and when and in such form as she thinks fit, to grant to any person or corporation a licence to assure in mortmain land in perpetuity or otherwise, and to grant to any corporation a licence to acquire land in mortmain and to hold the land in perpetuity or otherwise.

S-3 Saving for rents and services.

3 Saving for rents and services.

3. No entry or holding by or forfeiture to Her Majesty under this Part of this Act, shall merge or extinguish, or otherwise affect, any rent or service which may be due in respect of any land to Her Majesty or any other lord thereof.

II Charitable Uses.

PART II.

Charitable Uses.

S-4 Conditions under which assurances may be made to charitable uses.

4 Conditions under which assurances may be made to charitable uses.

(1)4.—(1.) Subject to the savings and exceptions contained in this Act, every assurance of land to or for the benefit of any charitable uses, and every assurance of personal estate to be laid out in the purchase of land to or for the benefit of any charitable uses, shall be made in accordance with the requirements of this Act, and unless so made shall be void.

(2) (2.) The assurance must be made to take effect in possession for the charitable uses to or for the benefit of which it is made immediately from the making thereof.

(3) (3.) The assurance must, except as provided by this section, be without any power of revocation, reservation, condition, or provision for the benefit of the assuror or of any person claiming under him.

(4) (4.) Provided that the assurance, or any instrument forming part of the same transaction, may contain all or any of the following provisions, so, however, that they reserve the same benefits to persons claiming under the assuror as to the assuror himself; namely,

(i.) The grant or reservation of a peppercorn or other nominal rent;

(ii.) The grant or reservation of mines or minerals;

(iii.) The grant or reservation of any easement;

(iv.) Covenants or provisions as to the erection, repair, position, or description of buildings, the formation or repair of streets or roads, drainage or nuisances, and covenants or provisions of the like nature for the use and enjoyment as well of the land comprised in the assurance as of any other adjacent or neighbouring land;

(v.) A right of entry on nonpayment of any such rent or on breach of any such covenant or provision;

(vi.) Any stipulations of the like nature for the benefit of the assuror or of any person claiming under him.

(5) (5.) If the assurance is made in good faith on a sale for full and valuable consideration, that consideration may consist wholly or partly of a rent, rentcharge, or other annual payment reserved or made payable to the vendor, or any other person, with or without a right of re-entry for nonpayment thereof.

(6) (6.) If the assurance is of land, not being land of copyhold or customary tenure, or is of personal estate, not being stock in the public funds, it must be made by deed executed in the presence of at least two witnesses.

(7) (7.) If the assurance is of land, or of personal estate, not being stock in the public funds, then, unless it is made in good faith for full and valuable consideration, it must be made at least twelve months before the death of the assuror, including in those twelve months the days of the making of the assurance and of the death.

(8) (8.) If the assurance is of stock in the public funds, then, unless it is made in good faith for full and valuable consideration, it must be made by transfer thereof in the public books kept for the transfer of stock at least six months before the death of the assuror, including in those six months the days of the transfer and of the death.

(9) (9.) If the assurance is of land, or of personal estate other than stock in the public funds, it must, within six months after the execution thereof, be enrolled in the Central Office of the Supreme Court of Judicature, unless in the case of an assurance of land to or for the benefit of charitable uses those uses are declared by a separate instrument, in which case that separate instrument must be so enrolled within six months after the making of the assurance of the land.

S-5 Power to remedy omission to enrol within requisite time.

5 Power to remedy omission to enrol within requisite time.

(1)5.—(1.) Where an instrument, the enrolment whereof is required under this Part of this Act for the validation of an assurance, is not duly enrolled within the requisite time, Her Majesty's High Court of Justice, or the officer having control over the enrolment of deeds in the Central Office, may, on application in such manner and on payment of such fee as may be prescribed by rules of the Supreme Court, and on being satisfied that the omission to enrol the instrument in proper time has arisen from ignorance or inadvertence, or through the destruction or loss of the instrument by time or accident, and that the assurance was of a nature to be validated under this section, order or cause the instrument to be enrolled.

(2) (2.) Thereupon, if the assurance to be validated was made in good faith and for full and valuable consideration, and was made to take effect in possession immediately from the making thereof without any power of revocation, reservation, condition, or provision, except such as is authorised by this Act, and if at the time of the application possession or enjoyment was held under the assurance, then enrolment in pursuance of this section shall have the same effect as if it had been made within the requisite time:

(3) (3.) Provided that if at the time of the application any proceeding for setting aside the assurance, or for asserting any right founded on the invalidity of the assurance, is pending, or any decree or judgment founded...

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