Host-Plus v Maritime Super [2023] NSWSC 725
Did an asset transfer from one superfund to another involve an ‘appointment’ for the purpose of unlawful inducement provisions13? The word ‘appointment’ has a well-understood legal meaning in trust situations14. Words with a legal meaning when used in a statute take that meaning ‘unless a contrary meaning clearly appears from the context’15.
Nothing in the context indicated any contrary intention here. This was consistent with comparable provisions elsewhere and the legislative history. Stevenson J held that the word ‘appointment’ directed attention to trustee conduct, but nothing in the asset transfer raised anything of this nature.
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Footnotes:
13 s 249E(2) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW).
14 Finn Fiduciary Obligations (at 300) cited.
15 Pearce 9th Edition (at [4.21]), Brewery Employees (1908) 6 CLR 469 (at 531).