Trust disputes—defences to breach of trust

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Practice notes

Trust disputes—defences to breach of trust

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

Published by a LexisNexis Private Client expert

Practice notes

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The most simple defence that a trustee can raise to a claim for a breach of trust is that the claim itself has no merit, eg that there had been no breach or that there was a breach but no loss resulted. Also, the claimant may be entirely unable to prove a link between the alleged breach and loss.

Apart from these obvious situations, there are a number of other defences.

Consent by beneficiaries

Clearly a beneficiary who consents to or participates in a breach is unlikely to succeed in a claim even if they derive no benefit from the breach. Having said that, there is no reason why a corporation cannot claim against a fraudulent and illegal use of its powers by some of its members (for instance, in a pension trust situation) to deprive it of property to which it was entitled.

If there are a number of beneficiaries, those who were not involved in giving consent will still be able to bring a claim.

If such a claim is successful, the beneficiary

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Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Disputes definition

What does Disputes mean?

There is a tPR code of practice on dispute management and regulation.

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