Bermuda Court Hands Down First Decision Under Statutory Re Hastings-Bass Provision

In July 2014 the Bermuda legislature enacted the Trustee Amendment Act 2014. The effect of this statutory reform was to insert a new section 47A into the Trustee Act 1975. Section 47A was intended to introduce into Bermuda statutory law the so-called "Rule in Re Hastings-Bass" as it had been understood and applied in England (and in other common law jurisdictions) prior to the decision of the English Court of Appeal in Pitt v. Holt, Futter v. Futter [2011] EWCA Civ 197. The "Rule in Re Hastings-Bass" had, prior to this decision, been a useful technique by which trustees (and others) could apply to set aside flawed exercises of fiduciary powers.

The new section 47A provided the court with the power to set aside the exercise of such powers ab initio (whether exercised before or after the coming into force of section 47A) without the need to attribute blame or to establish any breach of trust. The exercise of this statutory jurisdiction is dependent upon persuading the