1) INTRODUCTION2) HISTORICAL BACKGROUND3) INTERPRETATION

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At the end of the lecture, students will be able to:-

1)Identify and list down the concept of charity.

2)Distinguish and affirm the relevant principles that constitute charity.

3)Differentiate between Private Trust and Charitable Trust.

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Charitable trusts are public trust. The settlor/testator will create certain

purposes which are so beneficial to the community at large.

There is no formal statutory definition of charity but its definition is important.

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a) Validityb) Cy prèsc) Tax and ratesd) Public enforcement

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Since there is no statutory definition of charity, courts used the Preamble to the Statute of Charitable Uses 1601 or sometimes referred as the Statute of Elizabeth.

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Whereas lands, chattels, money have been given by sundry well disposed persons, some for the relief of aged, impotent and poor people, the maintenance of sick and maimed soldiers and mariners, schools of learning, free schools and scholars in universities, the repair of bridges, port, haven, causeway, churches, sea banks and highways, the education and preferment of orphans; the relief, stock maintenance for houses

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of correction; the marriage of poor maids; the supportation aid and help of young tradesmen, handicraftsmen and person’s decayed; the relief or redemption of prisoners or captives, the aid or ease of any poor inhabitants concerning payments of fifteens, setting out of soldiers and other taxes which lands, chattels and money have not been employed according to the charitable intent of the givers by reasons of frauds, breaches of trust and negligence.

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Does not explain/define the word charity. Remedy abuses in the administration of

charities. Purpose of the charitable trust will have to

be within “spirit and intendment of the Preamble.”

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Lord Wilberforce: “The Appellant must show … that the public

benefit is of a kind within the spirit and intendment of the statute of Elizabeth.”

Preamble recognised a number of object as charitable.

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The Statute of Charitable Uses 1601 was repealed by section 13(1) the 1888 Act.

Section 13(2) preserved the preamble.

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Lord McNaughten summarised the scope of charity.

“Charity in its legal sense comprises four principal divisions ; trusts for the relief of poverty, trust for the advancement of education; trust for the advancement of religion; and trust for other purposes beneficial to the community, not falling under any of the preceding heads.”

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The Committees on the law and the Practice relating to Charitable Trust 1952.

Recommended new statutory definition of charity.

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Repealed 1888 Act. Section 38(4): Any reference in any

enactment or document to a charity within the meaning, purview and interpretation of Charitable Uses 1601, or of preamble to it, shall be construed as a reference to a charity within the meaning which the words bears as a legal term according to the law of England and Wales.

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S96(1): ‘charity’ means any institution, corporate or not, which is established for charitable purposes and is subject to the control of the High Court in the exercise of the court’s jurisdiction with respect to charities.

S97(1): ‘charitable purposes’ means purposes which are exclusively charitable according to the law of England and Wales.

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Restated the categories of charity in simple and modern language.

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Govt decided not the promote a legislative definition.

Scope based on decision of court and charity Commissioner.

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Charity in its legal sense comprises four principal divisions;

1)Trust for the relief of poverty;2)Trust for advancement of education;3)Trust for advancement of religion; and4)Trust for other purposes beneficial to the

community.

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To be charitable a purpose must satisfy certain tests : it must either fall in the preamble to the ancient statute of Elizabeth I ( sometimes referred to as the Statute of Charitable Uses Act 1601) or within one of the of categories of charitable purposes laid down by Lord MacNagthen and derived form the preamble, and in the case of the fourth of those categories it must be within ancient

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statute, either directly or by analogy with decided cases on the same point, or it must have been declared to be charitable by some other statute. In addition, it must be for the public benefit, that is to say, it must be both beneficial and available to a sufficient section of community.

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Lord Wilberforce :1)Since it is a classification of convenience,

they may well be purposes which do not fit neatly into one or other of the heading

2)The words used must not be given the force of a statute to be construed

3)The law of charity is a moving subject which may well be evolved even since 1891.

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Each heads must involves 2 elementsa)An element of benefit; andb)An element of public benefit (except for

relief of poverty).The requirements of public benefit varies

form head to head. It must be exclusively for charitable

purposes.

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Oppenheim v Tobacco Securities Trust Co Ltd [1951] AC 297 : certain trust for the education of children of employees of former employees of British American Tobacco Co Ltd or any of its subsidiary or allied companies.

No CT

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Charity Law in Malaysia derived from English Law.

No equivalent of Charities Act 1960 or Charities Act 1993 in Malaysia.

Sarawak: Charitable Trust Ordinance (Cap 102) deals with administration of charitable trust in that states.

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‘Charitable trust’: any trust or grant of, or endowment . . . for any religious, educational or other charitable purposes.

It leaves the meaning of ‘charitable’ to judicial interpretation.

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