This contribution focuses on two matters pertinent to the office of trustee.
First, the fiduciary nature of the office of trustee is investigated, with particular
reference to the essence of a trustee’s fiduciary duty. Secondly, the protection
afforded by a trustee’s fiduciary office to trust beneficiaries, particularly contingent
beneficiaries, is examined. It is shown that the protection enjoyed by
contingent trust beneficiaries is frequently ascribed to their “vested interests
in the proper administration of a trust” (which, it is submitted, means that each
contingent trust beneficiary enjoys a personal right against the trust’s trustee
for proper trust administration as counterpart to such trustee’s fiduciary duty).
The question is then posed whether, as some commentators contend, such an
interest in or right to proper trust administration allows extending a direct
action, through the actio legis Aquiliae, to contingent trust beneficiaries for
claiming delictual damages from an errant trustee in breach of trust.