Barnsley & ors v Noble [2016] EWCA Civ 799

November 2016 #164

Michael and Philip Noble were brothers who built up a substantial property empire known as the Noble Organisation. It had a complex ownership and management structure involving a number of companies and partnerships and certain trusts for the benefit of their respective families. Michael died in 2006. The executors were Philip, his widow Gillian, and John Barnsley (an accountant associated with PricewaterhouseCoopers). There was a demerger of the business side and property side of the Noble Organisation with Philip taking the business assets and Gill taking the property assets. This was ...

Davies & anr v Davies [2013] EWHC 2623 (Ch)

November 2016 #164

Tegwyn and Mary Davies purchased a dairy farm known as Henllan in West Wales in 1972. It comprised a farmhouse, an attached cottage, outbuildings, and 182 acres of land. It was farmed with a nearby farm also owned by them known as Caeremlyn which they had purchased in 1961 (together ‘the farm’). The respondent, Eirian was one of their three daughters. By 1989, she was the only child left at the farm. She had a passionate interest in pedigree milking cows which was the main business of the farm, and it was by this stage clear that she was the only possible candidate to take it over. In th...

Ely v Robson [2016] EWCA Civ 774

October 2016 #163

The defendant (D) appealed against an order of His Honour Judge Blair QC whereby he made a declaration as to the extent of the parties’ beneficial interests in a property (the property).

D met the claimant (C) in 1986. A year later, C moved with his three sons into D’s house (37 Ashley Road). That year, C also purchased the property with a mortgage and conveyed it into his sole name. D made no contribution to the purchase price.

In 1989, D purchased another property (89 Bournemouth Road). C maintained that he contributed c.£16,000 to the purchase price, but D di...

Davies v Davies [2014] EWCA Civ 568

September 2016 #162

The appeal concerned a proprietary estoppel claim by the respondent, Eirian, with respect to her parents’ pedigree dairy farm.

Eirian’s claim was precipitated by the fact that her parents had sought to evict her from the farmhouse where she was living. Eirian had worked on Henllan during lengthy periods of her adult life. There were a number of arguments between Eirian and her parents which had, on occasion, led to Eirian temporarily leaving the farm. During one such period she worked as a technician for a company called Genus, which specialised in livestock reproduction services....

Heer v Singha [2016] EWCA Civ 424

September 2016 #162

This was an appeal against a declaration that H held only 50 per cent of the beneficial interest in the property. The property was registered in the name of S, the former husband of the respondent.

H and S were childhood friends who had formed a partnership for acquiring properties together in around 1998. H claimed that in 2001 he and S had agreed that H would provide funds to S to aid S to purchase the property, to be repaid within five years. The legal ownership was to be in S’s name only but H was to be the sole beneficial owner until he was repaid in full. Two documents...

Randall v Randall [2016] EWCA Civ 494

September 2016 #162

This appeal concerned when a party has standing to bring a probate claim. The appellant (H) and respondent (W) were divorced. As part of the divorce settlement, they agreed that if W were to inherit more than £100,000 from her mother, she would keep the £100,000 and the balance would be split equally between H and herself. On her death, W’s mother left £100,000 to W in her will and (after some small specific legacies) the balance of her estate (estimated at £150,000) to W’s children.

H brought a probate claim to challenge the validity of the will alleging that it was n...

Burns v Burns [2016] EWCA Civ 37

June 2016 #160

On 21 May 2010 the deceased died, aged 89, leaving two sons: the appellant and the respondent. The respondent claimed pronouncement in solemn form of an alleged will of the deceased dated 26 July 2005, which divided the deceased’s estate equally between the appellant and the respondent. The appellant challenged the validity of the 2005 will on the basis that the deceased lacked testamentary capacity at the date of its purported execution and on the basis that the deceased did not know and approve of the contents of the same.

In September 2003 social services began to assist with t...

Zeital v Kaye & ors [2010] EWCA Civ 159

April 2016 #158

The appeal concerned a dispute over the beneficial ownership of the sole two issued shares in a company in liquidation (the company). The company was incorporated by the deceased in 1988. The shares were originally issued to the company’s formation agents, a Mr Ashok Kumar and Mrs Kamlesh Kumar. Each signed an undated blank stock transfer form in relation to the share he/she held, leaving blank the transferee boxes. These forms came into the deceased’s possession.

In 1998 the company was struck off the register by the Registrar of Companies. In February 2004 the deceas...

Curran v Collins [2015] EWCA Civ 404

March 2016 #157

This was an appeal against a decision that Ms Curran, the appellant, had not acquired a beneficial interest in property in the sole name of Mr Collins, the respondent. Mr Collins and Ms Curran were in a relationship from about 1978 until 2010. However, she did not move in to live with Mr Collins until 2002, having maintained a close relationship with her own family.

From about 1994 onwards, the couple bred Airedale terriers. Over the course of the relationship, Mr Collins owned three properties in his sole name, referred to as the Bendfont flat, the Feltham house and The Haven. He...

O’Kelly v Davies [2014] EWCA Civ 1606

March 2016 #157

This appeal concerned a dispute over the beneficial ownership of the property whose legal title was at all times held by the appellant alone. At trial, the judge made the following findings:

  1. (i) A former property had been purchased in the joint names of the respondent and appellant in 1987.
  2. (ii) In 1991 the legal estate in that property was transferred into the sole name of the appellant to allow her to claim benefits as though she was a single woman living alone. The outstanding mortgage on that property at the time was converted to an endowment secured by a policy...