Trustee Act 1888

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1888 c. 59,51 & 52 Vict. c. 59
Year1888


Trustee Act, 1888

(51 & 52 Vict.) CHAPTER 59.

An Act to amend the Law relating to the Duties, Powers, and Liability of Trustees.

[24th December 1888]

B e 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 authority of the same, as follows; that is to say,

S-1 Short title, extent, and definition.

1 Short title, extent, and definition.

(1)—(1.) This Act may be cited as the Trustee Act, 1888 .

(2) (2.) This Act shall not extend to Scotland.

(3) (3.) For the purposes of this Act the expression ‘trustee’ shall be deemed to include an executor or administrator and a trustee whose trust arises by construction or implication of law as well as an express trustee, but not the official trustee of charitable funds.

(4) (4.) The provisions of this Act relating to a trustee shall apply as well to several joint trustees as to a sole trustee.

S-2 Receipt of money by solicitor as agent.

2 Receipt of money by solicitor as agent.

(1)—(1.) It shall be lawful for a trustee to appoint a solicitor to be his agent to receive and give a discharge for any money or any valuable consideration or property receivable by such trustee under the trust by permitting such solicitor to have the custody of, and to produce, a deed containing any such receipt as is referred to in the fifty-sixth section of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, 1881 ; and no trustee shall be chargeable with breach of trust by reason only of his having made or concurred in making any such appointment; and the producing of any such deed by such solicitor shall have the same validity and effect, by virtue of the said fifty-sixth section, as the same would have had if the person appointing such solicitor had not been a trustee: Provided that nothing herein contained shall exempt a trustee from any liability which he would have incurred if this Act had not passed in case he permits such money, valuable consideration, or property to remain in the hands or under the control of the solicitor appointed as aforesaid for a period longer than is reasonably necessary to enable such solicitor to pay or transfer the same to the trustee.

(2) (2.) It shall be lawful for a trustee to appoint a banker or solicitor to be his agent to receive and give a discharge for any money payable to such trustee under or by virtue of a policy of assurance by permitting such banker or solicitor to have the custody of and to produce such policy of assurance with a receipt signed by such trustee, and no trustee shall be chargeable with a breach of trust by reason only of his having made or concurred in making any such appointment: Provided that nothing herein contained shall exempt a trustee from any liability which he would have incurred if this Act had not passed, in case he permits such money to remain in the hands or under the control of the banker or solicitor appointed as aforesaid for a period longer than is reasonably necessary to enable such banker or solicitor to pay the same to the trustee.

(3) This section shall apply only where the money or valuable consideration or property is to be received after the passing of this Act.

S-3 Depreciatory conditions on sales by trustees.

3 Depreciatory conditions on sales by trustees.

(1)—(1.) No sale made by a trustee shall be impeached by any cestuique trust upon the ground that any of the conditions, subject to which the sale was made, may have been unnecessarily depreciatory, unless it shall also appear that the consideration for the sale was thereby rendered inadequate.

(2) (2.) No sale made by a trustee shall, after the execution of the conveyance, be impeached as against the purchaser upon the ground that any of the conditions subject to which the sale was made may have been unnecessarily depreciatory, unless it shall appear that such purchaser was acting in collusion with such trustee at the time when the contract for such sale was made.

(3) (3.) No purchaser, upon any sale made by a trustee, shall be at liberty to make any objection against the title upon the ground aforesaid.

(4) (4.) This section shall apply only to sales made after the passing of this Act.

S-4 Loans by trustees.

4 Loans by trustees.

(1)—(1.) No trustee lending money upon the security of any property shall be chargeable with breach of trust by reason only of the proportion borne by the amount of the loan to the value of such property at the time when the loan was made, provided that it shall appear to the Court that in making such loan the trustee was acting upon a report as to the value of the property made by a person whom the trustee reasonably believed to be an able practical surveyor or valuer, instructed and...

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