Rahman v Hassan & ors [2024] WTLR 1069

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2024 #196

The claimant was a distant relative of the late Mr Al-Hasib Al Mahmood (the deceased) and had become increasingly close with the deceased in the period since the claimant had moved to England. The claimant, and the claimant’s wife, had provided a great deal of care and assistance to the deceased and the deceased’s wife. Eventually, the claimant had moved in with the deceased and his wife.

The claimant alleged that on two separate occasions, five days apart from one another, the deceased performed acts amounting to donationes mortis causa, in favour of the claimant, regard...

Donationes Mortis Causa: Where there’s no will, there’s a way

Edward Cumming and Timothy Sherwin bring the doctrine of deathbed gifts up to date ‘It is in the very nature of a donatio mortis causa (DMC) that it is conditional on the donor’s eventual death, and that it is the donor’s death which perfects the gift.’ In this article, we consider donationes mortis causa (DMCs), …
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Deathbed Gifts: At a crossroads

Adam Carvalho and Alice Kendle explore the slippery and amphibious doctrine of donatio mortis causa ‘Unless the donor revokes the gift before death, when the donor dies their personal representative holds the property on trust for the donee.’ The case of King v The Chiltern Dog Rescue [2015] (King) has clarified – and restricted – …
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Vallee v Birchwood [2013] EWHC 1449 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2013 #131

On 6 August 2003, Cheryle Vallee (the claimant/respondent) visited her 93-year-old father Wlodzimierz Bogusz at his home. Ms Vallee, who lived abroad, told her father that she planned to visit next at Christmas. He replied that he might not be alive by then as he did not expect to live much longer. He handed over the deeds for his unregistered property, a house key, his war medals and a photograph album. The main asset of the estate was his property.

In December 2003 Mr Bogusz died intestate. Ms Vallee had been fostered and then later adopted after her mother and father’s m...