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CHARITABLE TRUSTS (VALIDATION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1954

CHARITABLE TRUSTS (VALIDATION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1954 - LONG
TITLE

An Act to validate and restrict to charitable objects, certain
instruments taking effect before the sixteenth day of December,
nineteen hundred and fifty-two, and providing for property to be
held or applied for objects partly but not exclusively charitable.
[2nd December 1954]
Validation and modification of imperfect trust instruments.

CHARITABLE TRUSTS (VALIDATION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1954 - SECT 1

1.(1) In this Act, "imperfect trust provision" means any provision
declaring the objects for which property is to be held or applied,
and so describing those objects that, consistently with the terms of
the provision, the property could be used exclusively for charitable
purposes, but could nevertheless be used for purposes which are not
charitable.

(2) Subject to the following provisions of this Act, any imperfect
trust provision contained in an instrument taking effect before the
sixteenth day of December, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, shall
have, and be deemed to have had, effect in relation to any
disposition or covenant to which this Act applies

(a)as respects the period before the commencement of this Act, as
if the whole of the declared objects were charitable; and

(b)as respects the period after that commencement as if the
provision had required the property to be held or applied for the
declared objects in so far only as they authorise use for
charitable purposes.

(3) A document inviting gifts of property to be held or applied
for objects declared by the document shall be treated for the
purposes of this section as an instrument taking effect when it is
first issued.

(4) In this Act, "covenant" includes any agreement, whether under
seal or not, and "covenantor" is to be construed accordingly.

CHARITABLE TRUSTS (VALIDATION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1954 - SECT 2
Dispositions and covenants to which the Act applies.

2.(1) Subject to the next following sub-section, this Act applies to
any disposition of property to be held or applied for objects
declared by an imperfect trust provision, and to any covenant to
make such a disposition, where apart from this Act the disposition
or covenant is invalid, but would be valid if the objects were
exclusively charitable.

(2) This Act does not apply to a disposition if before the
sixteenth day of December, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, property
comprised in, or representing that comprised in, the disposition in
question or another disposition made for the objects declared by the
same imperfect trust provision, or income arising from any such
property, has been paid or conveyed to, or applied for the benefit
of, the persons entitled by reason of the invalidity of the
disposition in question or of such other disposition as aforesaid,
as the case may be.

(3) A disposition in settlement or other disposition creating more
than one interest in the same property shall be treated for the
purposes of this Act as a separate disposition in relation to each
of the interests created.

CHARITABLE TRUSTS (VALIDATION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1954 - SECT 3
Savings for adverse claims, etc.

3.(1) Subject to the next following sub-section, where a disposition
to which this Act applies was made before, and is not confirmed
after, the commencement of this Act, the foregoing sections shall
not prejudice a person's right, by reason of the invalidity of the
disposition, to property comprised in, or representing that comprised
in, the disposition as against the persons administering the
imperfect trust provision or the persons on whose behalf they do
so, unless the right accrued to him or some person through whom he
claims more than six years before the sixteenth day of December,
nineteen hundred and fifty-two; but the persons administering the
imperfect trust provision, and any trustee for them or for the
persons on whose behalf they do so, shall be entitled, as against
a person whose right to the property is saved by this sub-section,
to deal with the property as if this sub-section had not been
passed, unless they have express notice of a claim by him to
enforce his right to the property.

(2) No proceedings shall be begun by any person to enforce his
right to any property by virtue of the foregoing sub-section after
the expiration of one year beginning with the date of the passing
of this Act or the date when the right first accrues to him or
to some person through whom he claims, whichever is the later,
unless the right (before or after its accrual) either

(a)has been concealed by the fraud of some person administering the
imperfect trust provision or his agent; or

(b)has been acknowledged by some such person or his agent by means
of a written acknowledgment given to the person having the right or
his agent and signed by the person making it, or by means of a
payment or transfer of property in respect of the right;

This sub-section shall not be taken as extending the time for
bringing any proceedings beyond the period of limitation prescribed
by any other enactment.

(3) For the purposes of the foregoing sub-sections, a right by
reason of the invalidity of a disposition to property comprised in,
or representing that comprised in, the disposition shall not be
deemed to accrue to anyone so long as he is under a disability or
has a future interest only, or so long as the disposition is
subject to another disposition made by the same person, and the
whole of the property or the income arising from it is held or
applied for the purposes of that other disposition.

(4) Any provision for the time being in force in Northern Ireland
defining the circumstances in which, for the purposes of the
statutes of limitation, a person is to be deemed to be under a
disability or, to claim through another person, shall apply for the
purposes of the foregoing sub-sections as they apply for the
purposes of those Acts.

(5) Where sub-section (1) of this section applies to save a
person's right to property comprised in, or representing that
comprised in, a disposition, or would have so applied but for some
dealing with the property by persons administering the imperfect
trust provision, or by any trustee for them or for the persons on
whose behalf they do so, the foregoing sections shall not prejudice
the first-mentioned person's right by virtue of his interest in the
property to damages or other relief in respect of any dealing with
the property by any person administering the imperfect trust
provision or by any such trustee as aforesaid, if the person
dealing with the property had at the time express notice of a
claim by him to enforce his right to the property.

(6) A covenant entered into before the commencement of this Act
shall not be enforceable by virtue of this Act unless confirmed by
the covenantor after that commencement, but a disposition made in
accordance with such a covenant shall be treated for the purposes
of this Act as confirming the covenant and any previous disposition
made in accordance with it.

CHARITABLE TRUSTS (VALIDATION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1954 - SECT 4
Provisions as to pending proceedings and past decisions and tax
payments.

4.(1) Subject to the next following sub-section, effect shall be
given to the provision of this Act in legal proceedings begun
before its commencement, as well as in those begun afterwards.

(2) This Act shall not affect any order or judgment made or given
before its commencement in legal proceedings begun before the
sixteenth day of December, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, or any
appeal or other proceedings consequent on any such order or
judgment.

Subs.(3) rep. by SLR 1976

(4) This Act shall not, by its operation on any instrument as
respects the period before the commencement of the Act, impose or
increase any liability to tax nor entitle any person to reclaim any
tax paid or borne before that commencement, nor (save as respects
taxation) require the objects declared by the instrument to be
treated for the purposes of any enactment as having been charitable
so as to invalidate anything done or any determination given before
that commencement.

CHARITABLE TRUSTS (VALIDATION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1954 - SECT 5
Application to Crown.

5. This Act shall bind the Crown.

CHARITABLE TRUSTS (VALIDATION) ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1954 - SECT 6
Short title.

6. This Act may be cited as the Charitable Trusts (Validation) Act
(Northern Ireland), 1954.