ABSTRACT
The principal remedy available to benefi ciaries against trustees is the right to demand an account from those trustees. 2 It is in that context that we have considered ‘account’ thus far. ‘Account’ has two senses which are of importance here. The fi rst sense of ‘account’ is that the fi duciary is obliged to provide accounts to the benefi ciary as to the value and condition of property held on trust. Where the documentary accounts are inadequate or incorrect in some way, the benefi ciaries are entitled to ‘falsify’ those accounts and demand a proper reckoning from the fi duciary. By contrast, the second sense of ‘account’ is an obligation to make good any losses disclosed by those accounts. This is more akin to one of the alternative, vernacular meanings of the verb ‘account’, meaning to explain or justify oneself.
