“Half-secret trusts fail when communicated terms differ from will provisions”
A testator's will left property to trustees 'for the purposes which I have already communicated to them'. However, the actual communication to trustees occurred after the will was made, creating inconsistency with the will's wording.
Whether a half-secret trust could be valid when the timing of communication to trustees was inconsistent with what the will stated
The Court of Appeal held the half-secret trust failed and the property passed on resulting trust to the testator's estate
This case established the strict consistency requirement for half-secret trusts, demonstrating they are subject to more rigorous conditions than fully secret trusts. It remains important for understanding the different treatment of secret trust categories.
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OSCOLA Citation
Re Stead [1900] 1 Ch 237 (CA)
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