Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This was a petition by the trustee under the settlement of the late Donald Maclean, who died in 1853. The purposes of the trust were, so far as need here be narrated, for behoof of the testator's children. There was only one beneficiary in life at the date of the petition.

The estate consisted of house property in Edinburgh, and certain funds, including a sum of £3200 which had been for many years lent to the Glasgow Improvement Trust at 4 per cent., but had been repaid, the trustees declining to renew the loan at higher interest than 3 1 2 per cent. The petitioner set forth that the beneficiary was in delicate health, and that the trust income being barely sufficient to meet his necessary expenditure, it was very desirable that there should be no diminution of income.

The trust-deed gave the trustees power to “alter, change, or vary such funds, stocks, or securities in or upon which they shall have lent or placed out the monies in virtue of the present trust, for others of the like nature, when and so often as it shall seem to them expedient.”

The petitioner stated that he had been unable to find for the £3200 an investment yielding 4 per cent. of a class which he could of his own authority under the trust-deed or the statutes accept without incurring personal responsibility.

Page: 296↓

The Trusts (Scotland) Amendment Act 1884, enacts, sec. 3, that “Trustees under any trust may, unless specially prohibited by the constitution or terms of the trust, invest the trust funds (a) in the purchase of …. 7. East India stock, stocks or other public funds of the Government of any colony of the United Kingdom approved by the Court of Session, and also bonds or documents of debt of any such Government approved as aforesaid, provided such stocks, bonds, or others are not payable to the bearer.”…

The petitioner craved authority to invest the funds in certain Colonial Government stocks. The stocks proposed by him included “(1) Dominion of Canada 4 per cent. stock, redeemable, 1904/1908; (2) Dominion of Canada 3 1 2 per cent. stock, redeemable, 1909/1934; (6) New South Wales 4 per cent. stock, redeemable, 1933; (7) New South Wales 3 1 2 per cent. stock, redeemable, 1924; (8) New Zealand 4 per cent. consolidated stock, redeemable, 1929; (9) Queensland 4 per cent. stock, redeemable, 1915/1924; (11) Victoria Government 4 per cent. railway loan 1881, redeemable, 1907; (12) Victoria Government 4 per cent. loans 1882 and 1883, redeemable, 1908/1913.”