Trusts

5 cases · December 2025 to June 2026

Case Volume by Year

1
25
4
26
2025–2026

Key Issues & Sub-Topics

Vesting order — Trust property — Undivided shares in land — Surviving trustee — Co-trustee deceased — Beneficiaries attaining age of majority — Trust declared to subsist until beneficiaries attained majority — Whether trust determined by effluxion of time — Whether beneficiaries became absolutely entitled — Whether trust became bare trust — Whether expedient to vest legal estate in beneficiaries — Trustee Act 1949, ss 3, 23(1), 48(h), 53, 60. 1 Trustees — Surviving trustee — Devolution of legal estate — Distinction between devolution of trusteeship and devolution of trust property — Whether legal estate vested in surviving trustee by survivorship — Whether surviving trustee had standing to seek vesting order — Trustee Act 1949, ss 23(1), 60. 1 Beneficiaries — Beneficiaries attaining majority — Absolute entitlement — Rule in Saunders v Vautier — Whether beneficiaries entitled to call for transfer of trust property — Whether vesting order appropriate notwithstanding surviving trustee’s power to transfer property without court order. 1 Vesting order — Expediency — Meaning of expedient under s 48(h) Trustee Act 1949 — Trust purpose exhausted — Co-trustee deceased — Long-standing trust subsisting for more than forty years — Need for clean and registrable title — Whether expedient to vest trust property directly in beneficiaries. 1 Resulting trust and constructive trust — Family arrangement concerning acquisition and management of land registered in defendant's name — Whether beneficial ownership to be determined from parties' true intentions and totality of contemporaneous evidence notwithstanding legal title — Whether Court confined to equitable label pleaded where material facts remained unchanged — Effect of pleadings, limitation, locus standi and private caveat — Plaintiffs' claim allowed. 1 Irrevocable trust — Settlor and spouse expressly excluded from beneficial entitlement — Property settled into trust — Transfers inconsistent with trust — Whether transfers void. Power of Attorney — Validity — Execution witnessed by solicitor — Signature admitted but plea of non est factum raised — POA not produced — Secondary evidence — Whether POA admissible — Whether POA authorised self‑transfer of land. Separation Agreement — Existence and effect — Plaintiff admitted telling deceased husband she shredded SA — Estoppel — Whether plaintiff precluded from relying on SA — Whether SA overrides trust. Land Law — National Land Code — s 340(2)(b) — Instruments executed ultra vires trust — Transfers by settlor to plaintiff and transfers by attorney to himself — Whether void or insufficient instruments — Indefeasible title. Evidence — Admissibility — Secondary evidence of POA — Failure to extract court‑filed copy — Neglect — Evidence Act ss 65, 91–92. Private International Law — Lex situs — Malaysian immovable property — UK family court orders and Barder principle — Whether foreign matrimonial orders can affect Malaysian land. 1 Constructive trust — Breach of trust — Employee retaining and exploiting employer’s business platform after resignation 1 Fiduciary Duties of Trustees and Executors — Duty to administer estate in accordance with terms of Will — Duty of impartiality towards beneficiaries — Breach of fiduciary duty — Unilateral imposition of conditions not found in Will — Discriminatory distribution of legacies 1

Beneficiaries — Beneficiaries attaining majority — Absolute entitlement — Rule in Saunders v Vautier — Whether beneficiaries entitled to call for transfer of trust property — Whether vesting order appropriate notwithstanding surviving trustee’s power to transfer property without court order. 1 case

Vesting order — Expediency — Meaning of expedient under s 48(h) Trustee Act 1949 — Trust purpose exhausted — Co-trustee deceased — Long-standing trust subsisting for more than forty years — Need for clean and registrable title — Whether expedient to vest trust property directly in beneficiaries. 1 case

Irrevocable trust — Settlor and spouse expressly excluded from beneficial entitlement — Property settled into trust — Transfers inconsistent with trust — Whether transfers void. Power of Attorney — Validity — Execution witnessed by solicitor — Signature admitted but plea of non est factum raised — POA not produced — Secondary evidence — Whether POA admissible — Whether POA authorised self‑transfer of land. Separation Agreement — Existence and effect — Plaintiff admitted telling deceased husband she shredded SA — Estoppel — Whether plaintiff precluded from relying on SA — Whether SA overrides trust. Land Law — National Land Code — s 340(2)(b) — Instruments executed ultra vires trust — Transfers by settlor to plaintiff and transfers by attorney to himself — Whether void or insufficient instruments — Indefeasible title. Evidence — Admissibility — Secondary evidence of POA — Failure to extract court‑filed copy — Neglect — Evidence Act ss 65, 91–92. Private International Law — Lex situs — Malaysian immovable property — UK family court orders and Barder principle — Whether foreign matrimonial orders can affect Malaysian land. 1 case

Fiduciary Duties of Trustees and Executors — Duty to administer estate in accordance with terms of Will — Duty of impartiality towards beneficiaries — Breach of fiduciary duty — Unilateral imposition of conditions not found in Will — Discriminatory distribution of legacies 1 case

Court Distribution

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Cases