APPOINTMENT, POWER OF, in English law, an author ity reserved by or limited to a person by a legal instrument, to dispose, either wholly or partially, either for his own benefit or for that of others, of an interest in property which is not his own under that instrument. Such powers are either general or limited. A general power is one which the appointor may exercise in favour of any person he pleases. It is obvious that such a power is very nearly equivalent to ownership, and consequently the property involved shares the liabilities of ownership as regards execution of judgments, bankruptcy and death duties. A limited power is one which can only be exercised in favour of certain specified persons or classes, but by the Powers Amendment Act 1874 the donee of the power is no longer obliged to appoint a share to each object of the power.
By the Wills Act 1837 a will made pursuant to the requirements of that statute shall be a valid execution of a power of appoint ment by will, notwithstanding that some additional form or solemnity is required by the instrument creating the power (see WILLS). As regards appointments by deed, the Law of Property Amendment Act 1859 enacts that a deed attested by two witnesses shall, so far as execution and attestation go, be a valid exercise of a power to appoint by deed. The courts of equity also will interfere in some cases of defective execution in order to carry out the intentions of the settlor where the defect is not of the essence of the power, but is a mere formality.
A power of appointment if exercised must be exercised bona fide, otherwise it will be void as fraudulent. Where an execution is partly fraudulent and partly valid the court will, if possible, separate the two and only revoke that which is fraudulent ; if, however, the two parts are not separable the whole is void. By s. 157 of the Law of Property Act 1925 protection is given to a purchaser in good faith. The doctrine of Election (q.v.) applies to appointments under powers.
The appointment must in law be read into the instrument creat ing the power in lieu of the power itself. Thus an appointor under a limited power cannot appoint to any person to whom the donor could not have appointed by reason of the rule against per petuities, but this is not so in the case of a general power, for there the appointor is virtually owner of the property appointed. In applying this rule to appointments a distinction arises between powers created by deed and will, for a deed speaks from the date of its execution but a will from the death of the testator, and so limitations bad when the will was made may have become good when it comes into operation. Since the Conveyancing Act 1881 (now Law of Property Act 1925, s. 155, 156) all powers may be released by the donees thereof, unless the power is coupled with a trust in respect of which there is a duty cast on the donee to exercise it ; and this is so even though the donee gets a benefit by such release as one entitled in default of appointment, for this is not a fraud upon the power.