TRUSTEE ACT 1936 - SECT 14
TRUSTEE ACT 1936 - SECT 14
14—Power of appointing new trustees
(1) Where a trustee,
either original or substituted, and whether appointed by a court or otherwise,
is dead or remains out of the State for more than twelve months, or desires to
be discharged from all or any of the trusts or powers reposed in or conferred
on him, or refuses or is unfit to act therein, or is incapable of acting
therein, then the person or persons nominated for the purpose of appointing
new trustees by the instrument (if any) creating the trust, or if there is no
such person, or no such person able and willing to act, then the surviving or
continuing trustees or trustee for the time being, or the representatives of
the last surviving or continuing trustee, may, by writing, appoint a person or
persons to be a trustee or trustees in the place of the trustee dead,
remaining out of the State, desiring to be discharged, refusing or being unfit
or being incapable, as aforesaid.
(1a) The person, or
any of the persons, by whom or with whose consent the appointment of a new or
additional trustee is required to be made, may appoint himself or, as the case
may be, consent to the appointment of himself as a new or additional trustee.
(2) On the appointment
of a new trustee—
(a) the
number of trustees may be increased; and
(b) a
separate set of trustees may be appointed for any part of the trust property
held on trusts distinct from those relating to any other part or parts of the
trust property; or, if only one trustee was originally appointed, then one
separate trustee may be so appointed for the first-mentioned part; and
(c) it
shall not be obligatory to appoint more than one new trustee where only one
trustee was originally appointed, or to fill up the original number of
trustees where more than two trustees were originally appointed; but, except
where only one trustee was originally appointed, a trustee shall not be
discharged under this section from his trust unless there will be at least two
trustees to perform the trust: Provided that the Public Trustee or a trustee
company may, irrespective of the original number of trustees, be appointed as
a sole new trustee and the original trustee or trustees shall thereupon be
discharged from the trust. Notwithstanding any other Act it shall not be
necessary to obtain the consent of the Supreme Court to an appointment of the
Public Trustee under this section; and
(d) any
assurance or thing requisite for vesting the trust property, or any part
thereof, jointly in the persons who are the trustees, or solely in the new
trustee, as the case may require, shall be executed or done.
(3) Every new trustee
so appointed, as well before as after all the trust property becomes by law or
by assurance or otherwise vested in him, shall have the same powers,
authorities, and discretions, and be entitled to the same remuneration (if
any), and may in all respects act as if he had been originally appointed a
trustee by the instrument (if any) creating the trust.
(4) The provisions of
this section relative to a trustee who is dead include the case of a person
nominated trustee in a will, but dying before the testator, and those relative
to a continuing trustee include a refusing or retiring trustee, if willing to
act in the execution of the provisions of this section.
(5) This section
applies only if and as far as a contrary intention is not expressed in the
instrument (if any) creating the trust, and shall have effect subject to the
terms of that instrument and to any provisions therein contained.
(6) This section
applies to trusts created either before or after the commencement of this Act.
(7) Nothing in this
section shall give power to appoint an executor or administrator.