Contract Law Essay

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An express trust is created intentionally by the settlor for the beneficiary; an express trust rises as a result of a declaration of trust, by the settlor. He may declare himself trustee or he may declare the trust and transfer the trust property to another person to act as trustee. There are four requirements to create a valid express trust, which are as follows. Firstly, the settlor must have capacity to create a trust; secondly the three certainties as identified by Knight v Knight (1984) requires certainty of intention, certainty of subject matter and certainty of objects. Thirdly if there are any statutory formalities they must be complied with and finally the trust be completed constituted. This problem question focuses on the three certainties, which will be examined. If these certainties are not present there is no binding trust, this is because it must be absolutely clear that testator wanted to establish a trust, and for a specific person or specific people. Here we need to demonstrate whether Midas had a clear intention to create a trust relationship rather than looking for an outright gift. In the case of Wright v Atkinson it was held, that the words used must be imperative, it must be clear, the person to whom the property passes, must be holding it on the behalf of others. In Re Kayford it was held, there was no need to use the word trust in order to establish certainty of intention, providing there was a clear intention to create a trust. In this case Midas has stated, that the property is on trust to David which is strong evidence to support that the property was to be held, on trust by David for the benefit of Midas’s nephews, rather than being an outright gift to David. It can be argued that the words wishing to confer benefit may be taken to be ‘precutory’ words that express a hope or desire that a property will be used in a particular

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