Court orders against express trustees

Thesis

This thesis concerns five court orders: the Surcharging Order, Subject-Matter Distribution Order, Lesser Receipt Order, Falsification Order, and Personal Loss Order. This thesis considers two questions, one descriptive and one normative. The descriptive question asks whether these five orders are available as a matter of law in England and Wales. The normative questions asks whether there are normative reasons for or against the making of such orders. These questions are considered in respect of express trustees of trusts for persons following breach of the duty to follow the settlor’s communicated intentions, and breach of the duty of care.

Notwithstanding the fact that the five court orders can be found in the reasoning of the courts of England and Wales, the literature in this area often fails to clearly discriminate between these five orders. This may be one reason why the two questions identified in this thesis have received insufficient attention.

In response to the descriptive question, this thesis argues that Surcharging Orders, Subject-Matter Distribution Orders, Lesser Receipt Orders and Personal Loss Orders are all sometimes available as a matter of law in England and Wales, but that Falsification Orders are not available.

In response to the normative question, this thesis outlines a number of normative reasons for and against the making of the five orders under discussion. The thesis canvasses possible ways for making such orders so as to further the values underpinning the reasons for making such orders, whilst avoiding harm to the values underpinning the reasons against.

Authors: Williams, S

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Private Law; Remedies; Trusts; Equitable Compensation; Trustees
• Subjects: Law; Trusts and trustees; Property