Harvey & anr v Van Hoorn [2023] WTLR 1323

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Winter 2023 #193

This was a claim for an order under the Variation of Trusts Act 1958, or alternatively a direction that the trustees of a settlement be at liberty to implement an arrangement involving the release and reimposition of certain powers. The claimants were the only trustees of the trust, and were also, respectively, the widow of the settlor, who had become the trust’s life tenant upon his death, and the settlor’s only child, who was also one of the objects of a discretionary power of appointment under the trust. They were concerned about the capital gains tax consequences that would ...

Tolley v No Defendant [2023] WTLR 1187

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2023 #192

Caroline Fisher was an only child and her parents were deceased. In September 2020 she made a will appointing the claimant, her friend, as her executor. In January 2022, she drove into the sea and had not been seen since. The claimant issued a CPR Part 8 claim under the Presumption of Death Act 2013 for a declaration of presumption of death before the will had been proved. Section 1(5) of the 2013 Act provides that the court must refuse to hear the application if:

  1. (a) it is made by someone other than a missing person’s spouse, civil partne...