Yule’s Trs v Deans, 1919 SC 570
Citation:Yule’s Trs v Deans, 1919 SC 570
Rule of thumb: If there is a condition set to obtain property from a will, is it automatically invalid? No, provided it is a reasonable & productive condition then it may be enforceable.
Judgment:
This case affirmed the principle of ‘spontaneous contingency conditions’ – people under wills are free to think up new conditions to be met before their legatees in their will may be entitled to property. The Court held that this is subject of course to the usual rules like repugnancy, overly onerous, public policy (statutes and common law breaches) etc, ‘I reject the notion that conditional vesting must not be applied to any case merely because there is no precedent for it. It must not, however, be invoked, however great may be the temptation, in any case where by so doing we should subvert some firmly established rule of construction’, Lord Shand at 57
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