This thesis re-examines the law of secret trusts and the doctrinal justification for enforcing a legatee's promise to a testator to apply his inheritance for the benefit of a third party nominated by the testator. It critically appraises, in terms of both case law and theory, the justifications presented by the fraud and dehors the will theories. Commencing with a review of the law on past and present testamentary formalities, it presents evidence that the modem dehors the will theory is a throwback to early misunderstanding about the relationship of informal testamentary trusts to wills. The testamentary nature of secret trusts is confirmed by an examination of probate case law defining a will and an analysis of the functions of the Wills Act formalities excludes the notion of an implied statutory exception for secret trusts. A review of precatory secret trust case law indicates how the law has developed based on a conventional assumption as to the nature of testators' secret instructions. The thesis also re-considers limits to the fraud-based constructive trust jurisdiction assumed to have endured the demise of the special probate courts. The thesis offers a new approach for English law based on accommodating the legatee's moral duty within a contingent restitutionary principle of personal fraud.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:696696 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Swann, Stephen James Alan |
| Publisher | University of Leicester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31100 |
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