Leahy v Attorney-General for New South Wales

Attorney-General (NSW) v Donnelly
Court	High Court of Australia
Decided	11 March 1958
Citation(s)	[1958] HCA 1, (1958) 98 CLR 538]
Case history
Prior action(s)	Supreme Court of NSW per Myers J, "Reasons for judgment" (PDF). 11 April 1957. pp. 34–44.
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Dixon CJ, McTiernan, Williams, Webb and Kitto JJ

Leahy v Attorney-General (NSW)
Court	Privy Council
Decided	20 April 1959
Citation(s)	[1959] UKPC 9, [1959] AC 457; [1959] UKPCHCA 3, (1959) 101 CLR 611
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Viscount Simonds Lord Morton of Henryton Lord Cohen Lord Somervell of Harrow and Lord Denning

Leahy v Attorney-General for New South Wales is an Australian and English trusts law case involving a charitable trust, heard by the High Court of Australia in 1958, and the Privy Council in 1959. The proceeding concerned the validity a gift to an unincorporated body, concluding that gifts in trust "cannot be made to a purpose or to an object" except for charitable circumstances.

At the heart of the case was the rule against perpetuities, which is a common law rule that "no interest is good unless it must vest, if at all, not later than twenty-one years after some life in being at the creation of the interest". The rule against perpetuities does not apply to trusts that are purely charitable, or more accurately, to an immediate gift of capital to a charity, even though the trust may last forever. A gift to an identified class that contained both charitable and non-charitable bodies would be subject to the rule against perpetuities.

The effect of the common law rule was modified in NSW by section 37D of the Conveyancing Act which provided:

A requirement for a charitable trust was that it must be for the benefit of the public. Gifts for religious purposes will only be charitable if they are to benefit the public and not merely the members of a religious group.

Francis Leahy was a wealthy Australian grazier who died in 1955 leaving a widow, Doris Leahy and 7 children. His estate was valued at A£348,000, comprising several grazing properties and a block of flats in Goulburn. Doris Leahy was left a life interest in one of the flats and specific bequests were made for some of the children. The majority of the estate was left upon trusts for various catholic orders. Clause 3 gave the trustees the discretion to select an "Order of Nuns of the Catholic Church or the Christian Brothers". Clause 5 provided that the residue was to be used for a convent for an order of nuns selected by the trustees. The executors, Donnelly, Wright and Mullen, sought the guidance of the Supreme Court of NSW whether these provisions of the will were void for uncertainty. The respondents to the application were Doris Leahy, the 7 children and the Attorney-General of NSW,

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