53Agents, attorneys, etc., power to employ

##### 53. Agents, attorneys, etc., power to employ (1) A trustee may, instead of acting personally, employ and pay an agent, whether a solicitor, accountant, bank, trustee corporation, stockbroker or other person, to transact any business or do any act required to be transacted or done in the execution of the trust or the administration of the trust property, including the receipt and payment of money, and the keeping and audit of trust accounts, and shall be entitled to be allowed and paid all charges and expenses so incurred, and shall not be responsible for the default of any such agent employed in good faith and without negligence. (2) A trustee may appoint any person to act as his agent or attorney for the purpose of selling, converting, collecting, getting in, and executing and perfecting assurances of, or managing or cultivating, or otherwise administering any property real or personal, movable or immovable, subject to the trust in any place outside the State, or executing or exercising any discretion or trust or power vested in him in relation to any such property, with such ancillary powers, and with and subject to such provisions and restrictions, as he may think fit, including a power to appoint substitutes, and shall not, by reason only of his having made any such appointment, be responsible for any loss arising thereby. (3) Without limiting the generality of the powers conferred by subsections (1) and (2), a trustee may — (a) appoint a solicitor to be his agent to receive and give a discharge for any money or valuable consideration or property receivable by the trustee under the trust, by permitting the solicitor to have the custody of, and to produce, a deed or instrument having in the body thereof or endorsed thereon a receipt for the money or valuable consideration or property, the deed or instrument being executed, or the endorsed receipt being signed, by the person entitled to give a receipt for that consideration; or (b) appoint a bank or solicitor to be his agent to receive and give a discharge for any money payable to the trustee under or by virtue of a policy of insurance, by permitting the bank or solicitor to have the custody of and to produce the policy of insurance with a receipt signed by the trustee, and the production, by the solicitor, of any such deed or instrument as is mentioned in paragraph (a) shall have the same validity and effect as if the person appointing the solicitor had not been a trustee. (4) A trustee shall not be chargeable with a breach of trust, by reason only of his having made, or concurred in making, any appointment such as is mentioned in subsection (3); but nothing in that subsection exempts a trustee from any liability that he would have incurred if this Act and any enactment replaced by this Act had not been passed, where he permits any money, valuable consideration or property therein mentioned to remain in the hands or under the control of the bank or solicitor for a longer period than is reasonably necessary to enable the bank or solicitor, as the case may be, to pay or transfer it to the trustee. (5) Subsections (3) and (4) apply whether the money or valuable consideration or property was or is received before or after the commencement of this Act.