In re Villar

Villar’s will created trusts that would pay an annuity to his widow and income to his children for a period of restriction before distributing the assets. The will defined the period of restriction as “the period ending at the expiration of 20 years from the day of death of the last survivor of all the lineal descendants of Her Late Majesty Queen Victoria who shall be living at the time of my death.” Villar died September 6, 1926, leaving a widow, five children, and two grandchildren. Villar’s son Arthur and the public trustee submitted the will to probate. Ascertaining Queen Victoria’s lineal descendants as of the date Villar died proved quite difficult. A junior official submitted an affidavit identifying about 120 descendants scattered across Europe as of 1922, possibly more as of 1926. Proving the pedigree of that many descendants would have been extremely expensive. Some branches of the royal family had become difficult if not impossible to trace following the war. Queen Victoria’s great-granddaughter Anastasia was a daughter of the Russian imperial family executed in 1918, and it was uncertain whether she or any of her children had survived. The public trustee asked the court to declare whether the trusts for the period of restriction were void for uncertainty or any other reason. If the trusts remained valid, the trustee asked the court to ascertain Queen Victoria’s descendants living as of the date Villar died. The judge found it would be difficult and expensive but not impracticable or impossible to identify the descendants and upheld the trusts as valid. Four of Villar’s children appealed.