A landmark Privy Council ruling has been hailed as good news for
Guernsey by an island-based lawyer.
Nick Robison acted for trustees of the Tchenguiz Discretionary
Trust, who had appealed a Guernsey Court of Appeal ruling of 2015
to the Privy Council.
The Guernsey court had held that a creditor of a trustee may
enforce a debt directly against the assets of a trust, even if the
trustee had no right to indemnify itself from the trust in order to
pay the debt.
The Privy Council overturned this aspect of the Court of Appeal
judgment, which Mr Robison said would bring comfort to settlors
that, in the event that a trustee unreasonably incurs a liability
or acts in breach of trust – invalidating its indemnity
– the assets in trust will still be protected from
creditors.
