THE LAPSE OF CHARITABLE BEQUESTS

A TESTATOR may give a bequest to a charitable institution or for a charitable purpose, and then, before his death, the institution may be closed down or the charitable purpose may cease to be carried on; or in some instances the institution or purpose described in the bequest may have ceased to exist before the date of the will. In such a case, if effect cannot be given to the particular intention expressed by the testator, the gift will be applied cy-pres if the testator had a general charitable intention.' But if the testator had no general charitable intention, then the gift may lapse; and the application of the ordinary doctrine of lapse to a charitable bequest where the testator had no general charitable intention, and the extent to which the application of the doctrine is restricted by the principle that a charity cannot die, have given rise to a series of cases. It is proposed to consider these cases under the three heads concisely stated by Bennett J. in Re Pochin 2 (which is noted after Re Lucas 3):