To surrender or not to surrender? That is the question

The March 2019 issue of Trusts & Estates addressed possible circumstances that might lead trustees to make applications to the Court and the method by which they would do so. In H & Others v S Trustees et al, ¹ the issue facing the trustee was whether to make distributions to discretionary beneficiaries following requests so as to meet their legal costs. What makes this case particularly interesting is that the status of those beneficiaries seeking distributions was the subject matter of the dispute before the court. Although this case emanates out of The Bahamas, the principles are of universal application and it is believed that this is the first case of its kind to come before a common law court.