trustee a person appointed to hold trust property and, in the case of an active TRUST, to administer it for the benefit of the beneficiaries. In the ordinary case, trusteeship will be 'full' in the sense that the trustees will have vested in them the property subject to the trust together with the powers of management enabling them to discharge their functions. However, under the Public Trustee Act 1906, provi- sion was made for trust corporations to act as custodian trustees holding the legal title to the trust property and being responsible for its safekeeping but without any powers of management.

A judicial trustee is a special trustee appointed by and under the control of the court under the Judicial Trustees Act 1896. The court will not appoint a judicial trustee in the absence of special circum- stances warranting it; an example of a case where such an appoint- ment might be warranted would be where a trustee was also a BENE- FICIARY and where there was a conflict of interest between his duties as a trustee and his position as a beneficiary.

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A trustee may be removed either under an express power conferred in the trust instrument or by the court under the provisions of Sec- tion 36 of the Trustee Act 1925 where he has become unfit to act (through physical or mental incapacity) or has been abroad for more than 12 months.

The office of trustee is a gratuitous one, with the consequence that, in general, while trustees may be reimbursed for expenses properly incurred, they may not receive remuneration. To this general rule there are a number of exceptions, the most important of which is where the trust instrument expressly empowers trustees to charge for their services. Additionally, the court may, if it considers it in the interests of the trust, authorise charges to be made or to be increased: see Re Duke of Norfolk's Sett. Trusts [1981] 3 All ER 220.

A trustee is personally liable for any loss to the trust estate caused by or resulting from any breach of trust committed by him, whether that breach was deliberate (i.e. fraudulent) or negligent. However, Section 61 of the Trustee Act 1925 provides that the court may absolve a trustee from such liability if he can demonstrate that he had acted honestly and reasonably and that he ought fairly to be excused.

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