TRUSTEE ACT 1936 - SECT 37

TRUSTEE ACT 1936 - SECT 37

37—Vesting order as to land

        (1)         In any of the following cases, namely:

            (a)         where the Supreme Court appoints or has appointed a trustee or where a trustee has been appointed out of court under any statutory or express power; and

            (b)         where a trustee entitled to or possessed of any land, or entitled to a contingent right therein, either solely or jointly with any other person—

                  (i)         is a lunatic or person of unsound mind; or

                  (ii)         is an infant; or

                  (iii)         is out of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court; or

                  (iv)         cannot be found; and

            (c)         where it is uncertain who was the survivor of two or more trustees jointly entitled to or possessed of any land or entitled to a contingent right therein; and

            (d)         where it is uncertain whether the last trustee known to have been entitled to or possessed of any land, or entitled to a contingent right therein, is living or dead; and

            (e)         where there is no personal representative of a deceased trustee who was entitled to or possessed of land or entitled to a contingent right therein, or where it is uncertain who is the personal representative or devisee of a trustee who was entitled to or possessed of land or entitled to a contingent right therein; and

            (f)         where a trustee jointly or solely entitled to or possessed of any land, or entitled to a contingent right therein, has been required, by or on behalf of a person entitled to require a conveyance of the land or a release of the right, to convey the land or to release the right, and has wilfully refused or neglected to convey the land or release the right for twenty-eight days after the date of the requirement,

the Supreme Court may make an order (in this Act called a vesting order) vesting the land in any such person in any such manner and for any such estate as the court may direct, or releasing or disposing of the contingent right to such person as the court may direct.

        (2)         However—

            (a)         where the order is consequential on the appointment of a new trustee the land shall be vested for such estate as the court may direct in the persons who on the appointment are the trustees; and

            (b)         where the order relates to a trustee entitled jointly with another person, and that trustee is out of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court or cannot be found, the land or right shall be vested in that other person, either alone or with some other person.