POWERS IN TRUST AND GIFTS IMPLIED IN DEFAULT OF APPOINTMENT.

This article attempts to describe the power in trust. A power in trust or in the nature of trust is a power which imposes upon the donee, a duty to exercise it, enforceable in equity. A power is an authority to deal with property apart from ownership. It is generally an authority to deal with property owned by some person other than the donee of the power; but a man may be given a power to deal with property which he himself owns. Such a power is called a power appendant. A power appendant is always destructible by the donee. A man cannot be deprived of the right to deal as owner with property which he owns by giving him a power; and by conveying the prosperity as owner, he is estopped to exercise the power. The author is of the views that a power may be given to a man, the exercise of which does not derogate from his own estate or interest, that is, which is not a power appendant, but which derogates from the estate or interest of some other person or persons. The donee may have an estate or interest in the property, as when property is given to A for life, with a power to him to appoint the remainder; this is called a power in gross or collateral. Or the donee may have no estate or interest in the property, as when property is given to A.