St Clair v King & anr [2022] WTLR 703
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2022 #187The defendants were the executors of the deceased’s last will dated 20 May 2009 (the 2009 will). The claimant, who was the stepdaughter of the deceased, challenged the 2009 will. There were seven issues at trial:
- (i) whether 2007 wills made by the deceased and her husband (the claimant’s father) were mutual wills such that if the 2009 will was admitted to probate, the estate needed to be administered to give effect to a constructive trust reflecting the terms of the 2007 will;
- (ii) whether there was a contract between the claimant and the deceased before the 2009 wi...
Rea v Rea & ors [2019] WTLR 1231
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Winter 2019 #177The claimant (Rita) was the daughter of Anna Rea (T) who died on 26 July 2016. The defendants (Remo, Nino, and David) were T’s other children. Rita propounded a will dated 7 December 2015 (the 2015 Will). The defendants defended on the basis that T had lacked testamentary capacity to execute the 2015 Will, that she did not know and approve of its contents, and that her execution of it was procured by undue influence and fraudulent calumny. They counterclaimed for probate propounding an earlier will dated 29 May 1986 (the 1986 Will). At trial they had abandoned the challenge based on lack...
Gupta v Gupta & ors [2019] WTLR 575
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2019 #175The Claimant (‘Rakesh’) sought to pronounce against the only will made by his late mother, Urmila Rani Gupta (‘the Will’). The Defendants were his two siblings (‘Naresh’ and ‘Sashi’), their children and his own children. The only party actively defending the claim was Naresh – he also brought a Part 20 Claim to appoint an independent administrator of the estate. The Part 20 Claim was not opposed.
The Deceased and her husband Laxmi made mirror wills in November 1998. Laxmi died before the Deceased, so the effect of the Will was that it gave Sashi and each grandchild a small pecunia...
Elliott v Simmonds & anr [2016] EWHC 732 (Ch)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | October 2016 #163Kenneth William Jordan (Mr Jordan) died on 4 August 2012 leaving a wife (from whom he was estranged) and two adult children. The claimant was Mr Jordan’s partner during the last years of his life and the first defendant was his daughter from a relationship that predated his marriage. He had previously made a will giving pecuniary legacies to the first defendant and two of his sisters with the residuary estate passing to the claimant. Subsequently, in January 2012, Mr Jordan gave instructions to Mr Mumford (who was his brother-in-law), a solicitor with the firm Melia Mumford, to make a ne...
Sharp v Hutchins [2015] EWHC 1240 (Ch)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2015 #152Mr Butcher was born on 4 October 1939. He lived alone in a bungalow at 42 Russell Road, Enfield, London. He had no surviving parents and no children. He was close to his only sibling, Yvonne Butcher, with whom he lived. She died in 2002. Mr Butcher died on 5 May 2013 aged 73. He left a net estate worth £482,295.00. He was in good physical and mental health at the time of his death.
It was likely that in 1991 Mr Butcher had made a will which left his estate to Yvonne. In 2003, he made a new will following her death (‘the 2003 will’). He did so without the involvement of any profess...