Trustee de son tort meaning

A trustee de son tort is a person who, without valid appointment, takes on the administration or control of trust property as if they were a trustee. The expression is drawn from case law rather than statute and is used across England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland. Usage and effect are broadly consistent across these jurisdictions, and the term captures unauthorised intermeddling with a trust. A person becomes a trustee de son tort by acting in the trust's management, such as giving instructions over trust assets, signing documents as trustee, making distributions, or otherwise holding themselves out as a trustee. Mere advice, clerical assistance or ministerial acts will not usually suffice. Once treated as a trustee de son tort, the person assumes core fiduciary obligations: to act in good faith for the beneficiaries, to keep and render an account, not to profit, and to restore misapplied trust assets. They are liable for breach of trust and subject to equitable remedies, even if not formally appointed. They are not automatically entitled to remuneration or to a trustee's indemnity. The concept is sometimes described as a de facto or constructive trustee. Not to be confused with an executor de son tort.