Trustee - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition trustee

Definition :

Trustee, is the legal owner of the property the actual owner thereof having lost title thereto by the creation of a trust. The equitable ownership in the trust property vests in the beneficiaries. The trust is thus an incidence of dual ownership in which the creator of the trust no longer figures, Baba Badri Dass v. Dharma, AIR 1982 P&H 255.

Means one who, having legal title to property, holds it in trust for the benefit of another and owes a fiduciary duty to that beneficiary, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1519.

Trustee, one entrusted with property for the benefit of another, called beneficiary, or cestui que trust. See also PUBLIC TRUSTEE; BREACH OF TRUST.

Consult Lewin or Godefroi on Trusts.

'Trustee' means any person, by whatever desig-nation known, appointed to administer a religious trust either verbally or by or under any deed or instrument or in accordance with the usage of such trust or by the District Judge or any other competent authority, and includes any person appointed by a trustee to perform the duties of a trustee and any member of a Committee or any other person for the time being managing or administering any trust property as such, Mahant Ram Saroop Dasji v. S.P. Sahi, Special Officer-in-Charge of the Hindu Religious Trusts, AIR 1959 SC 951: 1959 Supp (2) SCR 583.

Under s. 2(18) of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, a trustee has been defined as meaning a person, in whom either alone or in association with other persons, the trust property is vested and includes a manager, Ishwardas v. Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal, AIR 1968 SC 1364: (1968) 3 SCR 441.

It does not include a benamidar, a mortgagee remaining in possession after the mortgage has been satisfied or a person in a wrongful possession without title. [Limitation Act, 1963 (39 of 1963), s. 2 (n)]

Includes every person holding property in trust. [Specific Relief Act, 1963 (47 of 1963), s. 2 (d)]