Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 10:53:37

From: Andrew Tettenborn

Subject: Use of trust funds to pay lawyers

If I claim money in your hands is held on simple, bare trust for me, should you be allowed to use the alleged trust funds to pay your own lawyers? Logically I'd have thought the answer was no: how can a court give you permission to commit a glaring breach of trust? Yet in Brown v Rice [2003] EWHC 2155 (Ch), where this arose, a court varied an injunction against disposal and gave the defendant permission to spend £5,000 of the (£84,000) fund on her legal defence.

Am I being stupid, or is there something odd about this?

Andrew

Andrew Tettenborn MA LLB
Bracton Professor of Law

Tel: 01392-263189 / +44-392-263189 (international)
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http://www.ex.ac.uk/law/staff/tettenborn/index.html].

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