| Re Golay’s Will Trusts | |
|---|---|
| Court | High Court |
| Citation | 1 WLR 969 |
| Keywords | |
| Trusts | |
Re Golay’s Will Trusts 1 WLR 969 is an English trusts law case, concerning the requirement of subject matter to be sufficiently certain.
Facts
Adrian Golay wrote a will saying that he wanted Mrs Bridgewater ‘to enjoy one of my flats during her lifetime and to receive a reasonable income from my other properties …’ The will was challenged and it was questioned whether the clause was certain enough to be enforced, because it was not clear which flat, or what income would be reasonable.
Judgment
Ungoed-Thomas J held the trust was sufficiently certain.
The court is constantly involved in making such objective assessments of what is reasonable and it is not to be deterred from doing so because subjective influences can never be wholly excluded. In my view the testator intended by ‘reasonable income’ the yardstick which the court could and would apply in quantifying the amount so that the direction in the will is not in my view defeated by uncertainty.
See also
| Trust certainty cases | |
|---|---|
| Knight v Knight (1840) 49 ER 58 | |
| Jones v Lock (1865) 1 Ch App 25 | |
| Paul v Constance EWCA Civ 2 | |
| Sprange v Barnard (1789) 2 Bro CC 585 | |
| Boyce v Boyce (1849) 16 Sim 476 | |
| Palmer v Simmonds (1854) 2 Drew 221 | |
| Re London Wine Co (Shippers) Ltd PCC 121 | |
| Hunter v Moss EWCA Civ 11 | |
| Re Harvard Securities EWHC Comm 371 | |
| In re Roberts (1881-82) LR 19 Ch D 520 | |
| Re Gulbenkian’s Settlements UKHL 5 | |
| McPhail v Doulton UKHL 1 | |
| Re Baden’s Deed Trusts (no 2) EWCA Civ 10 | |
| Re Tuck’s Settlement Trusts EWCA Civ 11 | |
| Re Barlow’s Will Trusts 1 WLR 278 | |
| West Yorkshire MCC v District Auditor No 3 RVR 24 | |
| Certainty and English trusts law |