Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Subject_Expenses—Trust.— Headnote:

In a multiplepoinding, the Lord Ordinary found the raisers, who were trustees under a family settlement, liable in the expenses of four branches of the discussion which had been maintained by them, but quoad ultra found them entitled to their expenses out of the fund in medio. In explanation of the judgment, his Lordship observed in a note, that “the Lord Ordinary is perfectly sensible that trustees are, in the general ease, entitled to be protected from all loss in the discharge of their duty, and that consequently any litigation fairly arising out of the peculiarities of the trust, or of the situation of the claimants on it, must generally fall on the fund of division—but there may be exceptions from this rule, as trustees may, from over-scrupulousness or obstinacy, engage in litigation, occasioning great and unnecessary expense which it would be unjust to impose on those holding the beneficial interest in the trust,—and in the present case the Lord Ordinary cannot acquit the trustees of such imputation. He has accordingly, and upon that ground, found the trustees liable in the preceding interlocutor.”