M'Gregor's Trustees v. Kimbell

Held that the account of expenses incurred by the trustees must, in terms of the interlocutor, be taxed as between party and party and not as between agent and client.

A Special Case was presented to the Court by David Edward and another, trustees of the late James M'Gregor, first parties , Mrs Alice Jeffs or M'Gregor, now Kimbell, widow of the said James M'Gregor, and now wife of William Alfred Kimbell, second party , and others, to determine, inter alia , whether the second party was entitled to jus relictæ out of certain accumulated funds in the hands of the trustees, which had fallen into intestacy.

The Special Case stated, inter alia —“It has been agreed that the taxed expenses of the several parties to this case shall be paid out of the surplus accumulated funds referred to, so far as still in the hands of the first parties, subject to the sanction of the Court.”

On July 14, 1911, the Court pronounced an interlocutor finding the second party entitled jure relictce to one-half of the said accumulated funds (see report ut supra ), and finding the whole parties “entitled to their expenses as the same may be taxed by the Auditor—to whom remit—out of the surplus accumulated funds in the hands of the first parties.”

The second party thereafter lodged a note of objections to the Auditor's report on the first parties' account of expenses, in which she objected that the Auditor had taxed the account as between agent and client instead of as between party and party in terms of the interlocutor of 14th July 1911.