1) Hatem died leaving a valid will, in which he left his entire estate to Cynthia, his childhood sweetheart. He had appointed Tristram as the executor of the will. Instead of distributing the estate, Tristram made the following dispositions:
a) He gave £567,000 to a hospital in Croatia specialising in spinal injuries. They have spent the money on knocking down and rebuilding one of their wings.
b) He sold a rare Seneca manuscript to his business partner, Geraldine, for £87,000. Geraldine did not really know what she was buying, and bought it mainly as a means to say thank you to Tristram as he provided emotional support to her through her cancer treatments. The manuscript is in actual fact worth £4.7 million. Tristram has kept the £87,000 in a high-interest account and is now worth £123,000.
c) He transferred a cottage to his mother, Sally, for £72.78 and Greggs vegan sausage roll. A few months later, Sally, not liking the cottage, put it on the market and sold it to George for £360,000.
d) He placed £150,000 in his current account, which already had £40,000 in it. He then spent £187,000 on a Bugatti. His friend, Digby, borrowed the car and crashed it into a tree. The car was uninsured, and will cost £256,000 to repair.
Advise Cynthia on her entitlement and any remedies that may be open to her for breach of trust.
2) Nicholas’ will contains the following bequests to his trustee, Parsons:
a) £50,000 to pay for a spectacular monument in my honour to be erected in the centre of Greenwich Park. It is to overlook Canary Wharf.
b) £234,000 to pay for the food and upkeep of my pets. These include 4 zebra, 12 geese, 7 llamas and 4 tortoises. The tortoises are of the following ages: 12, 67, 128, 378.
c) £768,000 to fund research into establishing a means for Angola to join the European Union.
d) £456,789 to pay for the building of a sleep lab to be used by students of Exeter University. The academic members of staff are to have access in between lectures.
Advise Parsons as to the validity of these dispositions
3) Can the rule against private purpose trusts be justified? Is it in need of reform?
4) Critically analyse how the Charities Act 2006 (as amended by the Charities Act 2011) has reformed the public benefit requirement of charitable trusts.
5) Percy was a happily married 80 year who had a wife and two adult children. However, in April last year, whilst his wife was out, there was a knock at the door and an 18-year-old girl, Penny, announced that she was Percy’s child. She explained that Percy had an affair with her mother whilst on an international business trip.
Not wanting for his wife to find out, but also wanting to make sure his long-lost daughter was taken care of when he died, Percy decided that he wanted to leave her some property in his will. To this end he asked his son, Thomas, whether he would do something when died, the terms of which were enclosed in a sealed envelope that was only to be opened after Percy’s death. Thomas muttered ‘of course’, and Percy handed over the note and rewrote his will to leave Thomas £456,000 and a house in Wuhan ‘for the purposes outlined in the letter’.
Percy died in March, and after the funeral, Thomas opened the note, and his mother, Emma, also read the letter. Appalled to learn that her husband had been unfaithful, she demanded that Percy not carry out the terms of letter, to which he agreed. However, a copy of the letter was also sent to Penny, who is demanding the moneys and the house.
Advise Percy whether there is a valid secret trust and whether he must carry out its terms.
6) “The obligations that are placed on non-professional trustees are not onerous enough.” Critically analyse this statement.