The Man v. The Courts

The recent judgement of His Honour Deemster Doyle in the case of AB v CD highlighted an area of uncertainty in Manx trust law by questioning under what circumstances would the Manx courts be willing to interfere with a trustee's decision which has given rise to unintended consequences, including unintended tax consequences.

AB v CD

AB v CD concerned an application for an order to set aside a number of call options (Options) granted by the Defendant over the assets of eight discretionary trusts established under Manx law (Trusts). The order was applied for under the rule as established by the case of Hastings-Bass (the Hastings-Bass Rule) (also referred to as the proper deliberation rule) or, in the alternative, on the grounds of mistake. The Claimant was the settlor and primary beneficiary of the Trusts and the Defendant was the trustee.