New trustees’ right to legal advice given to former trustees

The Editor is grateful to will Twidale of Boodle Hatfield for the article on the Bird Charitable Trustees case in the Jersey courts. The point is an interesting one, which does not seem to have come before the English courts recently. Of course the issues raised when a trustee seeks information from current or former trustees are very different to those which may arise where beneficiaries seek information, and the trustees are protected by a ‘Londonderry’ clause (Re Londonderry’s Settlement (1965) Ch 918), in relation to issues raised by beneficiaries. The Editor has never seen anything similar intended to protect trustees against each other and is very doubtful whether such a clause would be valid. Visit www.boodlehatfield.com for further information.

The recent case of In the matter of the Bird Charitable Trust and the Bird Purpose Trust [2012] JRC006 raised interesting issues as to the circumstances in which a new trustee can obtain from the former trustee copies of documents containing the legal advice which the former trustee had received. There can be a tension between the documents which the new trustee should be entitled to in order to administer the trust properly and satisfy itself that the trust had previously been properly administered, which are its legal obligations, and the legal privilege in relation to documents to which the former trustee should be entitled.