Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

42.   Limitation on commencement of proceedings

1.  

   (1)   An action or proceeding—

   1.  

      (a)     to set aside the creation or settlement of an international trust;

   1.  

      (b)     to set aside any disposition to or by any international trust,

1.  

   shall not be commenced unless the action or proceeding is commenced in the Court before the expiration of 2 years from the date of the creation of the international trust which is sought to be set aside or the date of the disposition to or by the international trust that is sought to be set aside.

1.  

   (2)   An action or proceedings shall not be commenced by any person claiming to have or to have had an interest in property before that property was settled upon or disposed to or by an international trust and seeking to derive a legal or equitable interest in that property unless—

   1.  

      (a)     the person can establish the nature and extent of the interest and that the interest existed at the time of the relevant disposition or of the creation of the international trust; and

   1.  

      (b)     the action or proceeding is commenced in the Court before the expiration of 2 years from the date that the property was settled upon or disposed to or by the international trust.

1.  

   (3)   No action or proceeding to which subsection (1) or (2) or to which Part 12 applies whether substantive or interlocutory in nature, shall be determined and no order shall be made or granted by the Court, including any injunction that shall have the effect of preventing the exercise of or restoring to a person any rights, duties, obligations or powers, or preserving the exercise of or restoring to a person any rights, duties, obligations or powers, or preserving, granting custody or, detaining or inspecting any property, unless the applicant shall first satisfy the Court by affidavit that—

   1.  

      (a)     the action or proceedings has been commenced in accordance with subsection (1) or (2);

   1.  

      (b)     where the action or proceeding shall allege fraud or be founded upon some other action or proceeding alleging fraud, that the determination or order sought would not be contrary to the provisions of Part 12 of this Act; and

   1.  

      (c)     that the requirements of section 43 have been fulfilled.

1.  

   (4)   An affidavit required to be filed under subsection (3) shall be made by the person on whose behalf the action or proceeding is brought or, in the case of a body corporate, an officer thereof, and the person or officer shall depose as to—

   1.  

      (a)     the circumstances of the cause of action in respect of which the action or proceedings are brought;

   1.  

      (b)     the date upon which the cause of action shall have accrued;

   1.  

      (c)     the date upon which the property, in respect of which the action or proceeding is brought, was settled on, or disposed of by, the international trust; and

   1.  

      (d)     whether an action or proceeding has been commenced in any jurisdiction in respect of the cause of action or the international trust generally, and, if so, the date upon which that action or proceeding was commenced, the nature of the proceeding and in which jurisdiction it is pending.

1.  

   (5)   This section shall apply to every international trust expressed to be governed by the law in force in Saint Lucia and, in the event that a trust shall be registered as an international trust and shall change the law by which it shall be governed to that of Saint Lucia then every proceeding after that date of registration by a person claiming to be interested in, or to be prejudiced by, the settlement of property upon the trust, or disposition of property to the trust before registration, shall be commenced subject to subsections (1) and (2) and every determination and order shall be made subject to subsection (3) as if upon the date that such settlement or disposition was made the trust was an international trust governed by the law in force in Saint Lucia.