Sukhninder Panesar considers the case law relating to proprietary estoppel when seeking to acquire an interest in land without complying with the formalities of the 1989 Act Etherton J held that the proprietary estoppel was sufficient grounds for the enforcement of the terms of the oral contract. The question whether proprietary estoppel can be pleaded …
Continue reading "Law of Property (Misc. Provisions) Act 1989: Proprietary estoppel wins again"
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Mark Pawlowski considers the interrelationship between proprietary estoppel and secret trusts To what extent is it open to a testator to change their will or revoke the instructions they have given to their secret trustee so as to frustrate the expectations of the secret beneficiary? The answer to this question depends on whether the secret …
Continue reading "Trusts: Hush money"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Spring 2020 #178T died in 2009, aged 96 years, leaving two adult children, her son, who was the claimant (C), and her daughter, who was the third defendant (D3). By a will document dated 25 September 2008, T appointed the first defendant (D1) and the second defendant (D2) as her executors. D1 was the daughter of D3 and T’s only grandchild. D2 was the solicitor who drafted the will document. Both remained neutral in the proceedings.
In June 2017, C brought a claim for probate in solemn form of the will document and for an order removing D1 and D2 as executors and appointing an independent personal...
The parable of the prodigal son has resonance in modern probate disputes. Alex Troup discusses ‘The judge’s finding that the deceased had deliberately broken the agreement to equalise the balance between her two children explained the difference between her old will and the disputed will.’ The parable of the prodigal son has all the makings …
Continue reading "Probate: Promises, promises"
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Amy Harris summarises the key elements of a claim for proprietary estoppel and highlights the significance of the evidence available to the court in such cases ‘The three main elements of a proprietary estoppel claim do not sit in “watertight compartments”, and judicial discretion is key.’ In Guest v Guest [2019], the court was concerned …
Continue reading "Proprietary estoppel: Broken promises"
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In the first part of two articles Amanda Noyce discusses a series of recent proprietary estoppel claims concerning farms ‘There are six recently reported cases involving the concept of proprietary estoppel, where the principles emphasised (although not established) in Thorner have been honed.’ Proprietary estoppel appeals to those of us involved in Chancery work – …
Continue reading "Proprietary estoppel: Where there’s muck there’s brass"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Winter 2018 #170The deceased was a self-made man who had operated a farming business and a haulage company in partnership with his wife (the third defendant) and his son (the claimant). Over the course of his life, he purchased a number of parcels of agricultural land in Dorset. In 2007 he gave two of these parcels to one of his daughters (the first defendant). In 2009 the partnership dissolved, and the deceased transferred one of the parcels to himself and the third defendant to hold jointly. At the same time the claimant was given one of the parcels and the haulage business.
The deceased died i...
Rebecca Cattermole highlights the current position on the doctrine of estoppel in the context of recent case law ‘It was a useful working hypothesis to take a sliding scale by which the clearer the expectation, the greater the detriment.’ The case of Moore v Moore [2016] is the most recent illustration of the treatment of …
Continue reading "Proprietary Estoppel: Down on the farm"
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William Batstone examines the Court of Appeal decision in Davies v Davies [2016] ‘Detriment need not be quantifiable financial detriment, but it must be substantial and it must be weighed against any countervailing benefits.’ Tegwyn and Mary Davies have farmed in West Carmarthenshire since 1961 and they continue to do so now in their mid-seventies. …
Continue reading "Proprietary Estoppel: Considering detriment"
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William Batstone examines Davies v Davies [2015], in which a farmer’s son secured the freehold of the farm that his father had encouraged him to make his life’s work by promises that it would eventually be his ‘If James had been made aware of his father’s wishes in 1999, when he was in his early …
Continue reading "Proprietary Estoppel: One day all this will be yours"
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