When trust property is misapplied, the trustee is often not the only target — equity reaches outsiders who helped, received, or took it upon themselves to act as trustee. This chapter opens with the concept of intermeddling and the three principal forms of stranger liability, before examining dishonest assistance, including the two-stage test for dishonesty and why receipt of property is unnecessary. It then turns to knowing receipt, with its requirements of beneficial receipt and unconscionable knowledge, and to the trustee de son tort, who assumes trusteeship without appointment. It closes with the bona fide purchaser defence, the key distinctions between the heads of liability, and why the personal or proprietary nature of a claim matters when a defendant is insolvent.
