By Darryl Browne -
Key decisions
- Elizabeth Joan Paulsen as executor of the estate of the late Miriam Lesley Jean Douglass v Northern Sydney Local Health District [2018] NSWSC 1473
- Re Milenkovich; State Trustees Limited v Melbourne Health [2018] VSC 598
- Ubiparipovic v Vucicevic [2018] NSWSC 1583
- Legal Services Commissioner v Pierpoint [2018] NSWCATOD 160
- Fussell v Deigan [2018] NSWSC 1419
- Re Settree Estates; Robinson v Settree [2018] NSWSC 1413
- Lana Clarice Photios as Executor of the Estate of Henry Basil Photios & Anor v David Peter Photios [2018] NSWSC 1414
- Re Theodoulou [2018] VSC 601
- Sreckovic v Sreckovic [2018] NSWSC 1597
Testamentary trusts for charities
Miriam Douglass’ will left the residue of her estate to The Norman Anderson and Norman Memorial Trust for its research into prostate cancer and breast cancer only. It contained a clause that stated that if the Trust had ceased to exist at her death, the executors ‘shall in their absolute and unfettered discretion choose a charitable organisation in New South Wales whose purposes are the same as or similar to those [of] the Trust’. The Trust had ceased to exist at the testator’s death. The Court in Elizabeth Joan Paulsen as executor of the estate of the late Miriam Lesley Jean Douglass v Northern Sydney Local Health District [2018] NSWSC 1473 decided that rules that have been developed for the prevention of the lapse of charitable gifts did not apply as ‘the Will itself contemplated the possibility that the named Trust would have ceased to exist at the time of death and made provision for what was to happen in that event. Hence there would be no question of the gift of the residue lapsing’ (at [57]). This type of clause is desirable wherever a client favours benefitting a charitable purpose over a particular entity.
