The Court held that an express prohibition in a trust deed (here, a prohibition on loaning trust property) constitutes an 'absence of any power' for the purposes of s 81(1) of the Trustee Act 1925 (NSW), thereby enlivening the Court's jurisdiction to confer the prohibited power on the trustee. The Court conferred power on the trustee of a charitable museum trust to make temporary loans of collection items to other museum institutions (subject to strict conditions including a 10% cap, 12-month maximum, and loan agreement requirements) and to exhibit items in non-designated areas of the same building, finding both transactions expedient to the trust's educational and community purposes. The Court also found that cl 10 of the trust deed, which permitted transfer of the trust fund to 'other premises' when the museum premises were no longer suitable, did not authorise internal relocation within the same building.
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