The Lords also remanded the case to the Court of Appeal to be decided on this new legal principle as Re Baden's Deed Trusts (No 2).

Bertram Baden executed a deed settling a non-charitable trust for the benefit of the staff of Matthew Hall & Co Ltd and their relatives and dependents.

The objects clause provided that: The trustees shall apply the net income of the fund in making at their absolute discretion grants to or for the benefit of any of the officers and employees or ex-officers or ex-employees of the company or to any relatives or dependants of any such persons in such amounts at such times and on such conditions (if any) as they think fit.The validity of the trust was challenged, averring that the objects were insufficiently certain.

As to the value of the facts, the comment above was a powerful reason for departing from the Broadway Cottages case ([1955] Ch 20), which was the basis for the strict test for certainty of object of discretionary trusts, as overruled in McPhail (for which see below).

[6]On the facts, it was held that it was perfectly possible to say, looking at an individual whether they were either an officer or employee, an ex-officer or ex-employee, or a relative or dependent of one, and the validity of the trust was upheld.