Sep 2014
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
COURT OF APPEAL
COMMERCIAL APPEAL – TRUST FUND – ENTITLEMENTS OF BENEFICIARIES – CONSTRUCTION OF PROVISIONS OF TRUST DEED – WHETHER TRUSTEE HAD POWER TO EFFECT VARIATION OF TRUST DEED IN ACCORDANCE WITH WISHES OF SETTLOR – FIRST APPELLANT REMOVED FROM LIST OF BENEFICIARIES AND ENTITLEMENTS OF REMAINING BENEFICIARIES ALTERED BY SETTLOR – WHETHER ‘WORDS OF ENTITLEMENT’ IN ANNEXURE OF TRUST DEED BY WHICH APPELLANTS WERE INITIALLY MADE BENEFICIARIES CONVEYED IMMEDIATE, ABSOLUTE AND INDEFEASIBLE INTEREST IN TRUST ASSETS IN FAVOUR OF APPELLANTS – WHETHER ANY POWER GRANTED IN DEED TO TRUSTEE TO CHANGE BENEFICIARIES AND/OR PERCENTAGE ENTITLEMENTS RENDERED OTIOSE
This Appeal related purely to a matter of the interpretation of certain provisions of an inter vivos settlement. The first Defendant was the ex-wife and former beneficiary of a trust established by her then husband, the second to sixth Defendants his children. The first Claimant was the trustee of the trust. The Claim turned almost entirely on the constructions of the words ‘words of entitlement’ in the trust deed. The Defendants sought to argue this meant that in the case of the first Defendant she could not be removed and in the case of the remaining Defendants, their respective percentages could not be changed.