Commissioner of Stamp Duties (NSW) v Bradhurst

The Commissioner of Stamp Duties (NSW) appealed to the High Court of Australia from a decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The dispute concerned the assessment of death duty on property settled by the deceased settlor. The Commissioner sought to include the value of a trust fund in the deceased's dutiable estate, arguing that a beneficial interest in the fund accrued or arose upon the settlor's death within the meaning of section 102(2)(i) of the Stamp Duties Act 1920-1940 (NSW).

The legal issues before the High Court were whether a beneficial interest in the trust property accrued or arose to the beneficiary, Joyce Mabel Cooper, on the death of the settlor, and if so, to what extent. The core of the dispute lay in the interpretation of section 102(2)(i) of the Stamp Duties Act, which deemed certain property provided by the deceased to be part of their dutiable estate to the extent of any beneficial interest accruing or arising on their death.

A majority of the High Court (McTiernan, Williams, Webb, and Fullagar JJ.) held that no beneficial interest accrued or arose to the beneficiary on the death of the settlor within the meaning of section 102(2)(i). Their Honours reasoned that while the beneficiary's interest was provided by the settlor and was contingent on her attaining the age of twenty-one or marrying, and was subject to a power of revocation by the settlor, the cessation of this power of revocation upon the settlor's death did not, in this specific case, constitute the accrual or arising of a new beneficial interest. The beneficiary's interest remained contingent, and the primary change was an increase in the value of an existing, albeit contingent, interest, rather than the creation of a new one. Latham C.J. dissented, finding that the removal of the power of revocation on the settlor's death did result in a beneficial interest accruing or arising. The appeal was dismissed.