Creation of Valid Trust and How the Law Applies to Parties Entrusted With Property (Coursework Sample)

Analysis of Validity of a Trust
Issue
The question here is whether the testator created a binding trust for her property— the resort, cottage, shares and Shakespearean collection implied by specifications in the will. The validity of the trust depends on whether the wordings in the will had actual or apparent requirements, expressly or impliedly, to create a valid trust. The issue in the third disposition of the will is whether it constitutes to a charitable donation and whether the trustees have a legal obligation to donate the Shakespearean collection and first editions of Charles Dickens novels as per the will. This legal obligation depends on whether the gifts suffice to be donations of a charitable intent enforceable by law.
Rule
The Legal reasoning that determines whether a trust is valid is based on the court’s examination of the language used in the will in light of existing case laws to determine certainty of the testator’s intention to create a trust. Such reasoning applies the maxim of equity: ‘equity looks at intention rather than form’ and the court has a task to make sense of expressed intention despite obscurity and ambiguity of the wordings in the will. The implication here is that the court may validate the intention of the testator even in the absence of the word ‘trust’ in documentation and in utterance.