Pallot v Douglas 2017 BCCA 254 discusses the interest of a beneficiary of a trust in a decision that held that the beneficiary of a leasehold interest in a trust does not have the standing to partition the property and force a sale. This is because the very nature of an interest in a trust only gives one the use of an asset as opposed to actually owning an interest in the asset.
The Personal Nature of the Trust Interest
[30] Regardless of the terminology used, Mr. Pallot says his interest as a beneficiary under a trust of an interest in a leasehold estate gives him a right to immediate possession of the property. However, in my view, that position ignores one of the fundamental features of a trust.
[31] One of the essential features of a trust is that one or more parties hold title to property and manage it for the benefit of one or more parties who have a right to enjoy the property. The beneficiaries under the trust enjoy the property subject to the terms of the trust. Professor Waters describes the principle as follows:
The trust is, perhaps, better described by isolating its essential features. The hallmarks, the essential characteristics of the common law trust, are heavily reflective of a particular legal history. The foremost of these is the fiduciary relationship which exists between trustee and beneficiary. One party holds the title to property, and
manages it. for the benefit of another who has exclusive enjoyment of the property. As we have seen, it is possible to have a variation on this basic framework, for the trustee may himself be a beneficiary. In that case he will have a share in the enjoyment….
Donovan W.M. Waters, Mark Gillen & Lionel Smith, Waters’ Law of Trusts in Canada,
4th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2012) at 9.
[32] There are both personal and propriety aspects to a beneficiary’s rights under a trust. The proprietary aspect concerns a beneficiary’s rights to pursue trust property as against, for example, a buyer with actual or constructive notice of the trust. With respect to the personal aspect of a beneficiary’s right, Professor Oosterhoff says this:
If we consider first the personal aspect of the beneficiary’s right, it will be apparent that, since the management and control of the trust property is vested in the trustee, the beneficiary only has a personal right against the trustee that the latter perform the trust that he is bound to perform. The trustee can never “go around” the trustee and assert a claim to the trust property directly. On the contrary, the beneficiary’s claim must always be against the trustee….
…only the trustee, and not the beneficiary, has the right and the duty to make claims against third parties who may have interfered with or damaged the trust property….
A.H. Oosterhoff, Robert Chambers & Mitchell Mclnnes, Oosterhoff on Trusts: Text, Commentary and Materials, 8th ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2014) at 38.
[33] Professor Oosterhoff further explains the respective rights of trustees and beneficiaries:
Similarly, the beneficiaries are not generally entitled to direct the trustee. For example, the beneficiaries cannot require the trustee to resign and appoint another person as a replacement. In general, then, we see that the structure of the trust is that trust property is held by the trustee, and this gives the trustee rights in rem. rights against the whole world: the beneficiary, on the other hand, can reguire the trustee to use those rights according to the terms of the trust. It is not so much that the beneficiary has an interest in the trust property that lies alongside the interest of the trustee.
Rather the rights of the beneficiary encumber the rights of the trustee, with the result that the trustee can be forced to use his rights in a particular way. As one legal historian has put it, “The interest of cestui que trust depends on the interest of the trustee: the creation of a trust is a process of cumulation, and not division”.
Oosterhoff on Trusts at 39.
[34] In short, the interest of the beneficiary under a trust is the right to claim that the trust be performed in accordance with its terms. It is not an immediate right to possession of the trust property. This position was clearly shown in relation to a beneficiary’s equitable interest in Taylor v. Grange (1879), 13 Ch. D. 223, affd (1880), 15 Ch. D. 165 (C.A.). In Taylor manages it. for the benefit of another who has exclusive enjoyment of the property. As we have seen, it is possible to have a variation on this basic framework, for the trustee may himself be a beneficiary. In that case he will have a share in the enjoyment….
Donovan W.M. Waters, Mark Gillen & Lionel Smith, Waters’ Law of Trusts in Canada,
4th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Reuters, 2012) at 9.
[Emphasis added.]