CPLC Work in Progress Seminar: 'Consequences of the Defective Exercise of Powers under Pension Schemes'

Speaker: Professor Charles Mitchell, University College London

Professor Charles Mitchell (UCL) will talk about a research project that he is currently undertaking in collaboration with Jessica Hudson (UNSW). Pension scheme trustees are typically vested with powers, e.g. to set the contribution rate from employers and members; to decide the investment policy for the scheme assets; to pay benefits to members or their dependents; to allocate actuarial surpluses; to wind up the scheme; etc. Employers are also typically given powers, e.g. to amend the rules of the scheme jointly with the trustees or on the employers’ own account; to wind up the scheme; etc. The purported exercise of such powers can go wrong for various reasons, e.g. the power does not exist; the power is exercised for an improper purpose; or in bad faith; or on a mistaken view of the facts; or in an impermissibly self -interested way; etc. Various consequences might flow from such defective exercis es of power, e.g. an amendment to the scheme is ineffective; a purported transfer of legal title to trust property is ineffective at common law, or is effective at common law but ineffective to dest roy the beneficiaries’ equitable interest by overreaching, or is effective at common law, and effective to overreach the beneficiaries ’ equitable interests, but the beneficiaries have an equity to rescind the transfer; the power-holder may be liable to compensate for loss or to disgorge profits; etc. The goal of the project is threefold: to understand the rules which render a purported exercise of power defective; to understand the rules which identify the possible consequences of a defective exercise of power; and to understand how these rules 'join up' when they hold that particular consequences do or do not follow from particular types of defective exercise.

This seminar is open to all LLM, MCL and PhD students, Faculty members and Faculty visitors.