''Re Astor’s Settlement Trusts''
952Ch 534 is an
English trusts law
English trust law concerns the protection of assets, usually when they are held by one party for another's benefit. Trusts were a creation of the English law of property and obligations, and share a subsequent history with countries across the ...
case, concerning the principle that non-charitable trusts must be for beneficiaries and not abstract purposes.
Facts
Waldorf Astor
Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, DL (19 May 1879 – 30 September 1952) was an American-born English politician and newspaper proprietor. He was a member of the Astor family. He was active in minor political roles. He was devoted to charitab ...
, private secretary to
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...
and the husband of
Lady Astor, the first woman to take her seat in the
House of Commons, died. He had wished to create a trust for the ‘maintenance… of good understanding… between nations’ and ‘the preservation of the independence and integrity of newspapers’ with money from the shares he owned in his newspaper ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
''. The will was challenged on the basis that a trust for an abstract purpose, rather than for real people, could not be valid.
Judgment
Roxburgh J held that the trust failed because of the lack of beneficiaries, and it was uncertain. He said the following.
[ 952Ch 534, 541-2 and 549]
See also
*
English trust law
Notes
{{reflist, 2
References
*
English trusts case law
1952 in British law
1952 in case law
High Court of Justice cases