Constructive Trusts and Constructive Trustees

This article attempts to explain the meaning of the term “constructive trustee” and to understand why allegations of personal liability on the part of third parties to trusts are pleaded in the language of constructive trusteeship. The author concludes that the language of constructive trusteeship is dictated by the structure and historical context of the trust. Although this terminology could usefully be abandoned, an understanding of its origins suggests that as a matter of linguistic logic there is no room for third party liability which is somehow different from liability “as a constructive trustee.”