ROCKWILLS TRUSTEE BERHAD

On the court record

A trust corporation whose matters study the survival and effect of a power of attorney after death, the trustee's standing to recover estate assets, and the construction of testamentary dispositions.

ROCKWILLS TRUSTEE BERHAD, a trust corporation, appears in the corpus in trust-administration and estate matters, and its appearances turn on the powers of a trustee and the construction of testamentary instruments. In a High Court matter against CIMB Bank Berhad, the company, as a substitute trustee appointed under family trust deeds, sought to recover monies from deceased settlors' bank accounts using irrevocable powers of attorney executed by the settlors; the bank refused, contending that the powers of attorney were revoked on the donors' deaths, that the trustee was not a purchaser under section 6 of the Powers of Attorney Act 1949, and that grants of representation were required. That matter squarely engages whether a power of attorney survives the donor's death and the protection section 6 gives to a purchaser acting in good faith.

The company also appears in estate-administration and will-interpretation matters. In one it was sued as executor of a deceased estate in a contract and sale-of-goods dispute engaging sections 31 and 33 of the Sale of Goods Act 1957 and the Limitation Act 1953. In another, an originating summons sought the court's interpretation of a specific clause of a will. In a Court of Appeal matter it sought leave to adduce further evidence under the Rules of the Court of Appeal, the court noting its duty to act in the interests of justice.

For a reader, the cluster is a focused study of trust and estate litigation: the survival and effect of a power of attorney after death, the trustee's standing to recover estate assets, and the construction of testamentary dispositions. The company and the bank are named as they appear on the record; the individual settlors, beneficiaries and estate parties are referred to by their procedural role only. The trust corporation's matters go to the powers and standing of a professional trustee, and the recurring question is whether the instruments it relies on remain effective: whether an irrevocable power of attorney survives the donor's death, whether the trustee is protected as a purchaser under the Powers of Attorney Act 1949, and how a testamentary disposition is to be construed. Each determines the trustee's ability to gather and apply estate assets.