FORMALITIES; THE RULE IN STRONG V. BIRD; THREE CERTAINTIES; DEATH BED GIFTS

Seminar 3 Lecture Outline:
PART A: THE NEED FOR CONSTITUTION & SELF DECLARATION
 Lecture 1: What Is Constitution?
o What is constitution?
- Vesting of legal title in trustees
- General rule:
 Trust will be completely constituted where S has
done all in his power to vest the trust property in
the trustees
 NOTE: this doesn’t mean it has vested, it means
the settlor has done all they can do to make it
vest
o Why do we need constitution?
- Enforcement by benefciaries
 If completely constituted:
 Benefciaries can enforce trust obligations
 If you have a completely constituted trust,
you are now no longer a potential
benefciary, you now have an asset  won’t
have it yet because it needs to be
distributed to you but you can have an
asset because you can now enforce the
trust obligations
 Therefore, if you don’t get what you need
you are entitled to sue
 If incompletely constituted:
 Benefciary can enforce promise to create
trust if has given consideration for grant of
benefcial interest  this is rare
 Benefciary cannot enforce promise if no
consideration present
 Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999
 Modifes rules as we shall see later for
certain trusts
 Still need consideration
o Basis of Equitable Intervention:
- Equity follows the law, but not slavishly nor always:
 Equity will help protect a completed right:
 There will be situations where the settlor
has done everything they can do but title
hasn’t actually been vested
 Equity will intervene