Jersey 'COURTERLY' Review | April 2017

In the first four months of 2017, the Royal Court has considered a number of interesting cases relating to Jersey trusts. In this edition of the Courterly Review, we look at judgments that have raised issues relating to the principles applied in applications to bless a momentous decision made by a trustee in the context of ongoing divorce proceedings, rectification and the law of mistake.

Trusts and Divorce: Court blessing of trustee's momentous decision

In In the matter of the D Settlement [2017] JRC 061, the Court gave its approval to a decision taken by the trustee (the "Trustee") of a Jersey law trust ("the Trust") which was intended to enable one of the beneficiaries (being the settlor) of the Trust to give effect to a decision of the Family Division of the High Court in London.

Rectification

In In the matter of the H and J Trusts [2016] JRC 237, the Court had before it two applications to rectify two separate trusts created by declarations of trust which were in identical terms save for the beneficiaries. The trustee was the same for both trusts and both trusts were established to settle shares in the same company. Both were discretionary trusts originally established under the law of Gibraltar. The governing law of the Trusts was changed to the law of Jersey...