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...

Deathbed Gifts: Keeping control

Mark Pawlowski examines to what extent it is possible to make a deathbed gift of land ‘The handing over of keys to the house… may be capable of evidencing the passing of dominion over it because, although keys do not represent ownership of the property, they nevertheless constitute the physical means of obtaining possession.’ Essentially, …
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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...