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Kings v Bultitrode and another; re Schroder

High Court, Chancery Division: Proudman J, July 2010 Will – charitable donation – cy-près doctrine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2010

Ruth Arlow
Affiliation:
Barrister, Deputy Chancellor of the Dioceses of Chichester and Norwich
Will Adam
Affiliation:
Vicar of St Paul, Winchmore Hill
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Abstract

Type
Case Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2011

The claimant was a solicitor and executor of the will of Mrs S, who had been the leading member of a small independent church, the Ancient Catholic Church. The defendants were the representative of the beneficiaries in the case of partial intestacy and the Attorney General. The court found that the church to which the deceased had bequeathed her residuary estate no longer existed, largely as a result of her death, when members went their separate ways and the building, leased to the deceased, ceased to be used by them. The court held that the gift was dependent on the continued existence of the church. The residuary estate was not therefore the subject of a valid charitable gift. The specific intention of the deceased was such that the estate could not be applied cy-près to other charitable purposes and was therefore to be distributed under the rules of intestacy. The court further held that the property and assets of the church (rather than those of the deceased) were to be applied cy-près and were to be accounted to the Attorney General. [WA]