23Power to apply to Supreme Court for declaration as to validity, &c.

23 Power to apply to Supreme Court for declaration as to validity, &c.

(1)  An executor or trustee of property, or a person interested under, or in the invalidity of, a disposition of property, whether made before or after the commencement of this Act, may at any time apply to the Supreme Court for a declaration as to the validity, in respect of the rule against perpetuities, of a disposition of that property.

(2)  The Supreme Court may, on an application under subsection (1) , make a declaration, having regard to facts existing and events that have occurred at the time the declaration is made, as to the validity or otherwise of the disposition in respect of which the application is made.

(3)  The Supreme Court must not make a declaration under subsection (2) in respect of a disposition the validity of which cannot be determined at the time when the Court is asked to make the declaration.

(4)  If the Supreme Court refuses to make a declaration under subsection (2) relating to a disposition, the Court may give such directions as it thinks fit on any of the following matters:

(a) the construction of the instrument by which the disposition is made;

(b) the determination of a person who is a measuring life for the purposes of the disposition;

(c) whether a person who is a measuring life is to be presumed dead;

(d) whether, before the determination of the perpetuity period applicable to the disposition, an interest is to be treated as incapable of vesting during that period;

(e) any other matter on which an application could properly be made to the Court apart from this Act.