Plummer & Ors v Attorney General of NSW & Ors [2018] NSWSC 869

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Plummer & Ors v Attorney General of NSW & Ors [2018] NSWSC 869 Hearing dates: 10 May 2018 Date of orders: 31 May 2018 Decision date: 19 June 2018 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Slattery J Decision: Declarations made that a charitable trust is constituted under the 1971 trust deed and not under the subsequent deeds. Orders made appointing new trustees and re-vesting trust property in the new trustees. Plaintiffs' costs and the Attorney General's costs of the proceedings are to be paid out of trust property on the indemnity basis. Catchwords: CHARITIES – charitable trust – Charitable Trusts Act 1993 – whether deed made in 1971 ("the 1971 Trust Deed") constituted a valid charitable trust for religious purposes – what real and personal property then constituted, and what property now constitutes, the trust property under any trust constituted by the 1971 Trust Deed – were the terms of any trust constituted by the 1971 Trust Deed varied by either of two subsequent trust deeds made in 1977, 1978 and 1985 – who are the current trustees of the trust – should orders be made appointing new trustees and vesting the trust property in these new trustees. Legislation Cited: Charitable Trusts Act 1993, ss 5, 6(1), 7(2), 23 Conveyancing Act 1919, s 23C(1)(b) Perpetuities Act 1984 Trustee Act 1925, ss 6(13), 7, 8, 70 Cases Cited: Attorney General for New South Wales v Fulham [2002] NSWSC 629 Attorney General for NSW v The NSW Henry George Foundation Ltd [2002] NSWSC 1128 Leahy v Attorney-General for New South Wales [1959] AC 457 Manoogian (Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem) v Sonsino [2002] EWHC 1304 (Ch) NSW Masonic Youth Property Trust v Her Majesty's Attorney-General in and for the State of NSW [2009] NSWSC 1301 Pearce v Pearce (1856) 52 E.R. 1103 Pedulla v Nasti (1990) 20 NSWLR 720 Re Coxen [1948] Ch 747 Re Endacott; Corpe v Endacott [1960] 1 Ch 232 Secretary, Department of Social Security v James (1990) 95 ALR 615 RSL Veterans' Retirement Villages Limited v NSW Minister for Land [2006] NSWSC 1161 South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service v Wallace (2003) 59 NSWLR 259 Wylde v Attorney General for NSW (1948) 78 CLR 224 Texts Cited: Dal Pont and Gino Evan, Law of Charity (2nd ed, 2017, LexisNexis Butterworths) at [13.13] J D Heydon, Jacobs' Law of Trusts in Australia (7th ed, 2006, LexisNexis Butterworths) at [1061] H A J Ford and William A Lee, Principles of the Law of Trusts (2nd ed, 1990, LawBook Co) at [22910] Thomas Lewin, Lewin on Trusts (17th ed, 2000, Sweet & Maxwell) at [42-60] – [42-63] R P Austin, "Constructive Trusts" in P D Finn (ed) Essays in Equity (1985, LawBook Co) at 207-211 Robert F Norton, Robert J A Morrison and Hugh J Goolden, A Treatise on Deeds (2nd ed, 1981, Sweet & Maxwell), at 197-198 Category: Principal judgment Parties: First Plaintiff: Geoffrey Laurence Plummer Second Plaintiff: Clive Julian Yeomans Third Plaintiff: Richard Gordon Davies Fourth Plaintiff: John Brian Whittle Fifth Plaintiff: Ronald Ashley Randall