In Mcphail V Doulton, the House of Lords Adopted a More Liberal Approach Towards the Test for Certainty of Objects for Discretionary Trusts. a Similarly Generous Approach Should Now Be Adopted Towards the Other

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In McPhail v Doulton, the House of Lords adopted a more liberal approach towards the test for certainty of objects for discretionary trusts. A similarly generous approach should now be adopted towards the other certainties. To what extent do you agree that such an approach would be justified? The three certainties were conceptualised by Lord Langdale in Knight v Knight, he stated that in order for an express trust to be valid it must show certainty of intention, certainty of subject matter and certainty of objects. The intention of Lord Langdale was to provide a means to ensure that a trust is easy to enforce and control and to prevent it becoming invalid. It also reinforced the general principle of law; that law must be certain. Certainty of Objects The House of Lord’s decision in McPhail v Doulton was regarding the test for certainty of objects. The purpose of a test for certainty of objects is to determine the beneficiaries of a trust; the test will differ depending on whether the trust is a fixed trust, discretionary trust or a power of appointment. McPhail v Doulton concerned a discretionary trust where Mr Baden executed a deed settling a non-charitable trust for the benefit of the staff of Matthew Hall & Co Ltd and their relatives and dependents, an issue arose as to the ‘object clause’ which identified the beneficiaries as ‘relatives’ and ‘dependants’, it was argued that these terms were uncertain and the validity of the trust was challenged. Previously this discretionary trust would have received the same treatment as a fixed trust and the test for certainty of objects would have been the same as that in IRC v Broadway Cottages, ‘a complete list test’ where a list of the possible beneficiaries is drawn up. However, in Mcphail v Doulton the House of Lords chose to adopt the ‘is or is not test’ used in Re Gulbenkian's settlements, this simply requires

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