CHARITABLE TRUSTS, or CHARITIES. Property, real or personal, vested in trustees to he administered by them for religious, eleemosy nary, educational. or other benevolent purposes of a public nature. The origin and use of the term is due to the difficulty, more apparent than real, experienced by the English Court of Chan cery in enforcing trusts created for the benefit of a class of indefinite and unascertainable bene ficiaries, as a trust for the benefit of the insane, generally. or for the benefit of, the poor of Lon don. Inasmuch as there was no aseertained per son having the right to invoke the jurisdiction of the court to compel the trustee to perform the duty imposed on him, such a trust was deemed in many instances to he unenforceable and void. To avoid this consequence when the at tempted trust was of a salutary charaeter, an early English statute, known as the Statute of Charitable Uses (43 Enz. cap. 4. 1601). was passed. declaring such trusts valid and enforce able by commissioners appointed by the Court of Chancery. Such trusts have since been known as charitable uses. or charitable trusts. It is probable that the administration of such trusts fell to some extent within the prerogative juris diction of the Chaneellor before the statute. and its principal effect was to enlarge the jurisdiction of the Court of Chanvery and to define the uses which were to be recognized as charitable, as distinguished from those which, after the Refor mation, were deemed superstitions and void as pertaining to the Catholic Church.
The charitable trust is distinguished from the private trust, which Melnik, all other trusts, in that (I) it always exists for charity or public beneficence; (2) its beneficiaries are indefinite and undetermined; and (3) it may and usually does create a perpetuity.
1. An enumeration of the charitable objects, for which such trusts may be created and up held, is found in the statute of Elizabeth. Those objects may be grouped, as appears by the defini tion given, under four general heads, as Gifts strictly elf emosynary objects, i.e. for •haritv iu its narrow, popular sense, such as gifts for the poor., for siek, disabled. or demented person,. and for hospitals. homes, and asylums.
(2) Gifts for educational purposes, a, fur schools and colleges, to build or equip libraries, and to endow scholarships, fellowships, and the like.
(3) for the purposes of religion. such as those for the building or repairing of churches, for missions, and for spreading the Gospel. (4) Gifts tot' lightening the expenses of gore ell In en such a, bequests for the erect of public build ing-. d-cks, wharves. canals. etc II. Indefiniteness in Ills beneficiaries, either
as to the class to be benefited, or as to the indi viduals in a determined class who will be the objects of the bounty, is the predominant distin guishing feature of charitable uses or trusts. If the beneficiaries be definitely specified, no matter how charitable the object of the gilt. it con stitutes a private trust and is valid Without the aid of the statute, and must be construed and governed accordingly. Thus. a trust for the sup port and comfort of designated persons in a cer tain hospital would be private. while a trust for all those who should lie cared for by such an institution would be public. or charitable. This feature of trusts for charity, coupled with the liberal spirit in which courts con-true such gifts. has led to the method of executing them. called cy prcs as near as'). By this doctrine is meant, that when such gifts cannot be applied according to the precise intention of the donor. Pithough the gent-cal purpose of the trust is proper, they will be employed for the purpose in a manner as near as possible Icy press) to that •hieli was designated. It assumed two. forms in England. In one form it was employed by the halm. llor in the exercise of a prerogative, execu tive power. ilelev!ated to hill] under the sign manual of the Crown. and was earried to the ex tent of applying a trust for charities to charitable purpose. even when the particular Ilbjeet, for which it was intended were illegal and void. In its other form, it was exercised by the Chancellor in the of his judicial function-, and was applied only to such charitable trusts as were legal and valid in their inception, but which. because of some change in law or tircum-tan•is, could not be carried out in exactly the manner indicated by the donor. In this latter form, but not in the filmier. limey pre 41,t-trine is recognized and applied in smile. though not in all, of the American States. where tout- for charity are allowed. For example. a bequest made before the fall of slavery in the United states, to trustees, to lie applied to vari ous methods of creating a sentiment against negro slavery in America. was applied, after the close of the Civil War. by the Massaehusetts (•01111.4. to the kinerican Freedmen's and in Missouri, trustees having been directed by will to establish forever a charitable home upon land devised to them, and a portion of the land having been cut ell from the residue by a new ,t reel and rendered useless for the building. that portion was ordered by the court to be sold and the proceeds applied to the pay ment of the debts of the same institution.