Sprange v Barnard

1789 English trusts law case

Sprange v Barnard
CourtCourt of Chancery
Citation(s)(1789) 2 Bro CC 585
Keywords
Trusts, gift

Sprange v Barnard (1789) 2 Bro CC 585 is an English trusts law case, concerning the certainty of subject matter to create a trust. It is an example of a court concluding that the words of a testament being interpreted to mean, in essence, that a gift was intended rather than a trust.

Facts

The testatrix left £300 worth of annuities to her husband 'for his sole use; and at his death, the remaining part of what is left, that he does not want for his own wants and use to be divided between' a number of beneficiaries.

Judgment

Sir Richard Arden, Master of the Rolls, held that no trust arose, and the husband took all the property beneficially. Making a gift was the dominant intention, not to bind the husband with a trust.

See also

  • v
  • t
  • e
Trust certainty cases
Knight v Knight (1840) 49 ER 58
Jones v Lock (1865) 1 Ch App 25
Paul v Constance [1976] EWCA Civ 2
Sprange v Barnard (1789) 2 Bro CC 585
Boyce v Boyce (1849) 16 Sim 476
Palmer v Simmonds (1854) 2 Drew 221
Re London Wine Co (Shippers) Ltd [1986] PCC 121
Hunter v Moss [1993] EWCA Civ 11
Re Harvard Securities [1997] EWHC Comm 371
In re Roberts (1881-82) LR 19 Ch D 520
McPhail v Doulton [1970] UKHL 1
Re Baden’s Deed Trusts (no 2) [1972] EWCA Civ 10
Re Barlow’s Will Trusts [1979] 1 WLR 278
West Yorkshire MCC v District Auditor No 3 [1986] RVR 24
Certainty and English trusts law
  • English trust law

Notes

References