Spencer Estate, Re, (1969) 1 N.S.R.(2d) 282 (TD)

• Judge: Dubinsky, J.
• Court: Supreme Court of Nova Scotia (Canada)
• Case Date: December 01, 1969
• Jurisdiction: Nova Scotia
• Citations: (1969), 1 N.S.R.(2d) 282 (TD);1969 CanLII 860 (NS SC);9 DLR (3d) 74;1 NSR (2d) 282

Spencer Estate, Re (1969), 1 N.S.R.(2d) 282 (TD)

MLB headnote and full text

Re Estate of William P. Spencer

Indexed As: Spencer Estate, Re

Nova Scotia Supreme Court

Trial Division

Dubinsky, J.

December 1, 1969.

Summary:

The Court approved a proposed variation in a testamentary trust pursuant to the Variation of Trusts Act. Under a Will a legatee was granted an annual income of $2,000. per annum for life payable out of the principal and income of a fund. On the death of the legatee the fund was to be used for the maintenance and education of the legatee's children and distributed to the children on their twenty-first birthdays.

The Court approved the capitalization of the life interest of $2,000. per annum and of payment of such sum to the legatee; the payment of the remainder to the children of the legatee; and the provision of life insurance against certain contingencies. The Court held that the variation would benefit the children of the legatee because of the anticipated educational expenses of the children who were 20 and 22 years of age.

Trusts - Topic 8060

Variation of trusts - Grounds for variation - Benefit to beneficiaries - General - Wills - Jurisdiction of court to vary testamentary trust (Nova Scotia Supreme Court, Trial Division).

Cases Noticed:

Chapman v. Chapman, [1954] A.C. 429; [1954] 1 All E.R. 798, folld.

Re Davies (1968), 68 D.L.R.(2d) 412, folld.

Re Towler's Settlement Trusts, [1963] 3 All E.R. 759, folld.

Re Weston's Settlements, [1968] 3 All E.R. 338, folld.

Re Steed's Will Trusts, Sandford v. Stevenson and Others, [1960] 1 All E.R. 487, folld.

Re Mitchell (1969), 5 D.L.R. (3d) 123; [1969] 2 O.R. 272, dist.

Re Ball's Settlement Trusts, [1968] 2 All E.R. 438, folld.

Re Druce's Settlement Trusts, [1962] 1 All E.R. 563, folld.

Statutes Noticed:

Variation of Trusts Act, R.S.N.S., c. 323.

Counsel:

George C. Piercey, Q.C., and David A. Grant, for the applicant, George Burton Spencer;

S. David Bryson, for William Wallace Spencer and Margaret Jane Spencer;

R. Lorne MacDougall, Q.C., for The Acadian Trust Company, trustee, and unborn children of George Burton Spencer.