High Court, Chancery Division: Peter Leaver QC (Deputy Judge), December 1999
In 1872 land was conveyed to the rector and churchwardens of Chartham, Kent, under the School Sites Act 1841 to be held on trust for the establishment of a school which was to be run in accordance with the principles of the established church. In 1874, the managers of the school granted a twenty-one year lease to the Chartham school board, which provided that the school be deemed to be one provided by the board within the meaning of the Elementary Education Act 1870, section 14(2) of which provided that denominational religious education could no longer be taught there. A primary school continued to operate on the site until 1992, by which time the Canterbury DBF had become trustee. The claimant, being the assignee of the ultimate beneficiary of the estate of the original donor of the land, challenged the entitlement of the DBF to the proceeds of sale. It was held that the creation of the lease in 1874 involved a material change in the character of the school which went to the heart of the purpose for which the trust had been created in 1872. Thus, the trustees' fee simple immediately determined and the land reverted to the original donor under section 2 of the 1841 Act. It therefore followed that claim was statute-barred.
(2000) 5 Ecc LJ 490
