Gorbachev v Guriev [2023] WTLR 395

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2023 #191

The claimant made a third-party disclosure application under CPR 31.17 and s34 Senior Courts Act 1981 against Forsters LLP, English solicitors instructed on behalf of Cypriot trustees. Forsters LLP’s position was that the trustees were the only proper parties to the application under CPR 31.17, and that any order for disclosure should be made against them. Permission was granted by HHJ Pelling QC pursuant to CPR PD 6B(20) to serve the application for third-party disclosure on the trustees out of the jurisdiction, and for the application to be served by...

Hudson v Hathway [2023] WTLR 207

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Spring 2023 #190

After Jayne Hathaway (JH) and Lee Hudson (LH) started a relationship in 1990, JH moved into LH’s home and became a joint owner. They had two sons together but did not marry. After selling their home, they bought another in joint names. In 2007 they sold that home and, with a mortgage, bought Picnic House in joint names. The mortgage payments were made from a joint bank account, into which the salaries of them both were paid. LH’s contributions towards the mortgage payments far exceeded those of JH.

In 2009, LH left JH and moved in with another woman, whom he later married. JH cont...

Re Clitheroe [2021] WTLR 449

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2021 #183

The claimant (C) and the defendant (D) were the surviving children of the deceased. Her other child, E, had died of cancer without children. Although the deceased had been close to D and D’s daughter, this changed after a disagreement between D and the deceased about E’s medication, when the deceased threatened that she would not forgive or speak to D again. The Deputy Master found that D was not responsible for the estrangement and that the deceased had irrationally maintained that it was D who cut her out rather than the other way around. E’s death had a profound effe...

Rittson-Thomas & ors v Oxfordshire County Council [2021] WTLR 679

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2021 #183

The appeal concerned Nettlebed School in Oxfordshire. In 1914 and 1928, Mr Robert Fleming conveyed land to Oxfordshire County Council (the council) under the School Sites Act 1841 (SSA 1841). The benefactions enabled a new school building to be built. The school operated on the site until 2006. In the 1990s, the council decided to relocate the school to a new building with improved facilities on other land owned by the council (adjacent to the old site), and the pupils moved to the new building in February 2006. The council’s plan was to sell the old site to pay o...