JOHN CONTI ESQ

KATZ WILL TRUST

NOTE ON PRIVY COUNCIL DECISION

(The tapes of the hearing were accidentally destroyed by the Privy Council Office - this note was prepared by Counsel for the Petitioner and presented before the Manx Courts)

1. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council today refused special leave to appeal against the decision of the court of appeal of the Isle of Man on a preliminary issue. It is important to understand why such leave was refused.

2. The preliminary issue which had been directed by the Deemster to be first determined was "whether Section 35 and Section 38 of The Trustee Act 1961 rendered the purported retirement of GEORGE RAMSEY MARTIN MOORE on the 28th day of October 1983 ineffective and void?". The Petitioner had remarked in his petition that the question was infelicitously phrased. The Judicial Committee said that the question was 'nonsense'. The Judicial Committee decided that the only question which the preliminary issue raised was whether the retirement of the Respondent, if otherwise valid, was rendered ipso facto invalid by reason of the fact that there were not after the retirement two individuals resident in the Isle of Man as trustees. Since the Petitioner no longer relied on that argument, there was no longer any dispute on this preliminary issue. In other words, leave to appeal was refused because there was no adverse decision for the Petitioner to appeal against. Thus, although the application was dismissed, the Petitioner in fact achieved the principal goal of the application, namely a declaration that it was still open to him to argue that the retirement was void on other grounds.