Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

THE TRUSTEE ACT 1893 AND SHALL COME INTO OPERATION ON A DAY TO BE FIXED BY THE GOVERNOR, - SECT 17

    (1)     A trustee may appoint a legal practitioner 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 legal practitioner to have the custody of, and to produce, a deed having in the body thereof or endorsed thereon a receipt for such money, consideration, or property, the deed being executed or the endorsed receipt signed by the trustee.

    (2)     A trustee shall not be chargeable with breach of trust by reason only of his having made or concurred in making any such appointment. The producing of any such deed by the legal practitioner shall be sufficient authority to the person liable to pay or give the consideration, or transfer or deliver the property, for his paying, giving, transferring, or delivering the same to the legal practitioner, without the legal practitioner producing any separate or other direction or authority from the trustee.

    (3)     A trustee may appoint a bank or a legal practitioner 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 assurance, by permitting the bank or legal practitioner to have the custody of and to produce the policy of assurance with a receipt signed by the trustee, and a trustee shall not be chargeable with a breach of trust by reason only of his having made or concurred in making any such appointment.

    (4)     Nothing in this section shall exempt a trustee from any liability which he would have incurred if this Act had not been passed, in case he permits any such money, valuable consideration, or property to remain in the hands or under the control of the bank or legal practitioner for a period longer than is reasonably necessary to enable the bank or legal practitioner (as the case may be) to pay or transfer the same to the trustee.

    (5)     This section applies only where the money or valuable consideration or property is received after the commencement of this Act.

    (6)     Nothing in this section shall authorize a trustee to do anything which he is in express terms forbidden to do, or to omit anything which he is in express terms directed to do, by the instrument creating the trust.