Re West Sussex Constabulary's Widows, Children and Benevolen...

Facts

• The West Sussex Constabulary’s Widows, Children and Benevolent (1930) Fund was established to provide financial assistance to the widows, children, and dependents of constabulary members.
• Funding for the trust came from contributions by members, employers, and other donors.
• Upon the dissolution of the West Sussex Constabulary, the trust’s original purpose became impossible to fulfil.
• The issue arose regarding the distribution of the fund’s surplus assets after the trust ceased to operate.
• The question was whether the surplus should be returned to donors, distributed among potential claimants, or pass to the Crown as bona vacantia.

Issues

1. Whether donors or contributors retained any rights to reclaim surplus funds after the trust ceased to serve its purpose.
2. Whether surplus funds should be subject to a resulting trust for donors or pass as bona vacantia to the Crown.
3. How the lack of legal personality in unincorporated associations affects the distribution of surplus trust assets.
4. Whether the nature of contributions (contractual or proprietary) determined entitlement to remaining funds.

Decision

• The court held that donors to the fund did not retain proprietary rights to their contributions once the trust’s purpose had been exhausted.
• Surplus assets were not held on resulting trust for the donors; instead, they passed to the Crown as bona vacantia.
• Donors’ rights existed only under contract, not as ongoing beneficial owners.
• The trust was not created for the benefit of the donors, and the original terms did not provide for reversion of property to them.
• The nature of the fund as property of an unincorporated association did not give its members or donors a legal or equitable right to the surplus on its winding up.

Legal Principles

• Donors to a trust or fund are generally limited to contractual rights unless an intention to retain proprietary rights is expressly stated.
• Surplus funds from unincorporated associations or trusts with failed purposes pass to the Crown as bona vacantia in the absence of a resulting trust.
• The difference between contractual and proprietary rights is decisive in determining post-dissolution distribution.
• Resulting trusts do not arise where donors did not intend to retain rights to their contributions.
• Gifts or contributions to entities without legal personality are treated as being held by trustees, but reversionary rights depend on the trust’s terms and contributors’ intentions.

Conclusion

Re West Sussex Constabulary Trusts [1971] Ch 1 clarified that where a purpose trust for an unincorporated association fails, surplus funds do not revert to donors but instead pass to the Crown as bona vacantia, unless the donors’ intention to retain a reversionary interest is clear from the terms of the trust or act of donation. This decision highlights the importance of explicit trust provisions regarding donor rights and distribution of remaining assets upon dissolution.