Ritchie v Trustees Executors & Agency Co Ltd [1951] HCA 38

High Court of Australia Dixon, McTiernan, Webb, Fullagar and Kitto JJ. Ritchie v Trustees Executors & Agency Co Ltd [1951] HCA 38

ORDER Appeal and cross-appeal dismissed.

Cur. adv. vult.

The Court delivered the following written judgment:—

July 6 Dixon, McTiernan, Webb, Fullagar and Kitto JJ.

We are called upon by the appeal and cross-appeal in this case to determine some questions concerning the manner in which a payment made under the Wool Realization (Distribution of Profits) Act 1948 Cth. should be applied under certain trusts. The trusts arise under the will of Charles Campbell deceased and a settlement of portion of an interest under that will made by one of his children, Charles William Campbell, now deceased.

The order from which the appeal and the cross-appeal are brought was made by the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Victoria upon an originating summons submitting for determination a number of questions arising in the administration of the trusts in consequence of the payment.

The testator, Charles Campbell deceased, died as long ago as 1905. His will was made not long before his death. He owned among other things two pastoral stations, one of which, called Murray Downs, is still carried on by the trustees under the trusts of the will. The other was sold by the trustees at a date too early for it to have any relevance in this appeal. During the seven wool seasons or years from 1st July 1939 to 30th June 1946, while the National Security (Wool) Regulations were in operation, large clips of wool grown upon Murray Downs were submitted by the trustees for appraisement in pursuance of the regulations. The aggregate of the appraised values for all seven seasons was £76,319. The payment received under the Wool Realization (Distribution of Profits) Act 1948 was made to the trustees in relation to this wool, being six and a-quarter per cent of the appraised value of the wool. It amounted to £4,770.