Heslop v Heslop & anr [2022] WTLR 137

Analysis

Mr Dudley Heslop issued two separate proceedings in England against his sister, Ms Mona Heslop, domiciled in England, and his other sister, Mrs Jennifer Seales, domiciled in Scotland. The proceedings concerned the equitable ownership of a property in Jamaica that had been purchased by the parties’ late mother in 2008. The parties’ mother had been domiciled in England from 1948 to 2015 when she moved to Scotland to live with Mrs Seales. In 2018, the parties’ mother passed away, leaving a will dated 13 March 2012 which purported to deal with the property. The proceedings issued by Mr Heslop asked, in essence, for a declaration as to the beneficial ownership of the property which, once determined, would enable the parties’ mother’s estate to be properly administered. Mr Heslop purported to serve proceedings on Mrs Seales in Scotland and Ms Heslop in England. Mrs Seales accepted such service as valid and no party objected to the proceedings continuing in England. The court considered jurisdiction as a preliminary issue.

Held:

1. 1) The English court can control trustees of a trust of foreign land through orders in personam. The English court can determine the beneficial interests under such a trust, direct the removal and substitution of trustees by means of injunction and direct that the trustees sell or transfer the property. Here all the relief sought was in personam and the court was capable of exercising jurisdiction over the proceedings.
2. 2) In circumstances in which no party asserted that another forum, including Jamaica, was more suitable, all the parties resided in the UK and the administration of the property had been conducted in England, England was the natural forum.
3. 3) The Brussels I Regulations or the Brussels Recast Regulations, whichever applied, did not alter this position in respect of the first proceedings because the default provision under such regulations was that parties would be litigated against in their home state, which here was the UK, and the provisions as to immovable property did not otherwise grant exclusive jurisdiction to Jamaica, as Jamaica was not a member state.
4. 4) Neither the Brussels I Regulations nor the Brussels Recast Regulations applied to the second set of proceedings as they were issued after the end of the Brexit transition period.

JUDGMENT DEPUTY MASTER DRAY: [1] Pearline Albertha Hylton (‘the Deceased’) was born in Jamaica on 25 December 1927. She migrated to England in or around 1948. She was domiciled in England until around 2015 when she went to live in Scotland, initially with one of her daughters, the Second Defendant who is, and has been …

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