Trustees
of the Mount Cook Station Charitable Trust unwittingly continued running Trust
affairs after their term of appointment expired. Facing personal liability, court approval was
needed to validate contracts and have costs and expenses paid by the Trust.
The romance surrounding
iconic Mount Cook high-country sheep station and the fact it had been in Burnett
family ownership for some 150 years triggered much angst when Donald Burnett
died childless in 2010, the last of the family line. On his death, a Trust established the
previous year was to buy the station at current market value. However, the property was by then an
uneconomic farming unit. Banks would not
lend. Trustees decided to on-sell to a
private buyer, finding a buyer at $4.7 million.
A furore erupted. Friends of the
Burnett family claimed this departed from Donald Burnett’s wishes. Tramping and hunting groups lobbied
government to step in. Trustees then
discovered to their dismay that their original appointment was for five years
only. Work done on behalf of the Trust after
their appointment expired and the subsequent private sale were done without
authority. The High Court subsequently validated
these unauthorised acts. But it refused
to allow Trust assets to be used for trustees’ expenses.
The Court of Appeal
said the trustees were trustees de son
tort; no longer trustees, but acting as such. There was no criticism of the actions they
took. Reasonable costs and expenses
incurred in bringing court applications to regularise the Trust’s affairs are
to be paid out of Trust assets, the court ruled. A September 2016 High Court order appointed
the Public Trust as sole trustee of the Mount Cook Station Charitable Trust. Purposes of the Trust highlight preservation
of the area’s historical and natural heritage.
The Trust’s most recent financial statements list assets of $5.89
million.
Butterfield
v. Public Trust – Court of Appeal (24.08.17)
17.109