Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Guiding (star)** principles on trust interpretation


Following the post last week I was reminded of a related issue from the case of Harris v Rothery [2013] NSWSC 1275 that provides useful guidance in relation to the role of an appointor.

In many respects, the main focus in the decision was on the issue of whether the role of an appointor was a fiduciary one.

While the court held that for the purposes of the relevant deeds the role was not a fiduciary one (even though generally it will be), a number of other issues were addressed by the court that are important to the interpretation of trust deeds.

In summary, these included the following:
  1. a later inconsistent document to a purported variation, including where the later document is set out in the will of a party can validly amend a trust instrument, depending on the provisions of the original document;
  2. where a trust deed is prescriptive about the steps that must be taken (for example, providing written notification to a trustee) any purported change will only be valid on satisfying the relevant requirements;
  3. similarly, if there are timeframes set out in the deed for the provision of notices, unless they are complied with strictly, the notice will be held to be ineffective;
  4. unless a trust instrument requires original notices to be provided, then copies will suffice;
  5. similarly, notices that are undated will not of themselves be invalid unless the trust instrument requires dated documents;
  6. the provisions of a trust deed must be interpreted by reference to a reasonable objective construction, as opposed to how the parties subjectively interpreted them; and
  7. the nomination of a replacement appointor will only take effect when the incumbent appointor is no longer able to act, unless otherwise expressly provided in the instrument of nomination.
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** for the trainspotters, the title today is riffed from the Teenage Fanclub song ‘Guiding Star’. View hear (sic):