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The English cy pres doctrine (pronounced as see-pray) is a legal doctrine of the Court of equity. It allows the Court to settle a trust as near (Cy-prés) as possible to the original intention of the testator, where the original intended purpose is impossible, impracticable or illegal. This prevents the trust from failing.
In the United States, Cy Pres applies only to charitable trusts where the original particular purpose of the trust has become impossible or impractible, and the terms of the trust do not specify what is to happen in such a situation. A typical example would be a trust established to turn public opinion against slavery. Once slavery was abolished, the trusts stated purpose had become impossible to effect. The court will then modify the particular purpose of the trust, leaving it within the same general charitable purpose. In the slavery example, for instance, a court could decide that, while the particular purpose was bringing an end to slavery, the general purpose was to help African Americans, and alter the provisions of the trust to focus on this new goal.
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