Barclays Private Bank & Trust (Cayman) Ltd v Francois

• Jurisdiction: Cayman Islands
• Judge: (Henderson, J.)
• Judgment Date: 29 July 2005
• Court: Grand Court (Cayman Islands)
• Date: 29 July 2005

Grand Court

(Henderson, J.)

BARCLAYS PRIVATE BANK AND TRUST (CAYMAN) LIMITED

and

FRANCOIS, A. BEAUFOUR and H. BEAUFOUR

Attorneys: Walkers for the plaintiff; Myers & Alberga for the first defendant; Turner & Roulstone for the second and third defendants.

Trusts-powers and duties of trustees-application for directions

The applicant trustee sought directions as to whether it should take steps to prevent an initial public offering provided for in an earlier agreement between several parties, including entities controlled by the trustee. The first defendant, who was a beneficiary under one of the trusts concerned, had written to the trustee before the agreement was executed, opposing it. After it was executed, she obtained an ex parte injunction restraining the trustee from taking any steps to implement the IPO, but it was ineffective as there was nothing for the trustee to do except let the entities it controlled carry the agreement into effect. Failure to complete the IPO would give rise to substantial and meritorious claims for damages with consequent risk to the trust assets.

Held: The directions sought did not form a Category 2 question (within the meaning of Public Trustee v. Cooper, [2001] W.T.L.R. 901) which was one in which the issue was whether the proposed course of action was a proper exercise of the trustees” powers, about the nature of which there was no real doubt and they had decided how they wanted to exercise them but, because the decision was particularly momentous, they wanted the blessing of the court for the action on which...