Public Guardian v SR & NC [2015] EWCOP 32 (Fam)
July/August 2015 #151MC was born on 8 October 1937. Her husband died in 2004. She had two children: a son (NC) and a daughter (SR) aged 54 and 49 respectively.
On 12 June 2009, MC executed a lasting power of attorney (LPA) for property and affairs appointing NC and SR jointly and severally as her attorneys. The LPA was registered on 24 September 2009.
In October 2011, MC made a will leaving 95% of her estate to SR and the remaining 5% to NC. In March 2013, SR placed MC’s house on the market. NC suspected that SR was mismanaging MC’s affairs and on 22 April 2013 entered a restriction...
Julia Lomas v AK (Gift Application) [2014] EWCOP B11
June 2015 #150This was an application by the deputy of an 11 year-old boy (AK) for a gift of £150,000 to be made by him to his parents from the damages awarded to AK under a settlement of a clinical negligence claim brought by his mother acting as his litigation friend against the local NHS Trust in 2009.
AK was born in October 2002 and suffers from cerebral palsy as a result of a prolonged period of hypoxia at the time of his birth. In 2009, the High Court approved a settlement in his favour of the clinical negligence claim. The settlement included a lump sum payment of £1,050,000 plus the fol...
Re PC; Public Guardian v AC & JC [2014] EWCOP 41
April 2015 #148PC was born in 1936. She suffered from vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. In June 2009, she had executed an LPA for property and affairs, appointing her sons, AC and JC, as her attorneys jointly and severally. The LPA was registered on 12 August 2009. In June 2013, an application to the Court of Protection was made by the Public Guardian (OPG) for an order revoking the LPA, and directing them to account to the OPG for their dealings under the LPA. The OPG had been informed that the attorneys had not been paying their mother’s care fees and that arrears had accumulated...
Re Miles; The Public Guardian v Miles & ors [2014] EWCOP 40
March 2015 #147This was an application by the Public Guardian for the court to determine the validity of provisions in two lasting powers of attorney, one for property and affairs and one for health and welfare (the LPAs). The LPAs were made by by Mrs Miles on 27 November 2013. A solicitor called Mr Satchell drew them up.
Under the LPAs Mrs Miles appointed her husband and daughter as her attorneys under both powers; appointed her son as her replacement attorney; directed that her attorneys act jointly for some decisions and jointly and severally for others; selected option A in the health and we...
Re GW; London Borough of Haringey v CM Neutral citation: [2014] EWCOP B23
December 2014 #145GW was diagnosed with late onset Alzheimer’s dementia in 2009. He had lost contact with his sons who apparently live in Australia and only had contact with one niece, CM. GW was sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 three times and was hospitalised in January 2013 before ultimately being placed in a residential care home. Whilst still in hospital, a safeguarding alert was raised by nursing staff for financial exploitation on the basis of disclosures made by GW about his finances, which suggested that his niece, CM, was withdrawing monies from his bank account without ...
Re OB, The Public Guardian v AW & anr Neutral citation: [2014] EWCOP 28
December 2014 #145OB, who was born in 1916, was a widow with two adult children, AW and DH. She lived in her own home until February 2007 and thereafter with AW. On 15 September 2008, OB executed a lasting power of attorney (LPA) for property affairs, appointing AW and DH jointly and severally as her attorneys. OB’s property was sold on 15 June 2010 and realised net proceeds of £376,200. The LPA was registered by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) on 4 March 2011. Subsequently, DH expressed concerns that long standing ‘pocket money’ payments by OB to her grandchildren had been stopp...
Re AB (Revocation of Enduring Power of Attorney) [2014] EWCOP 12
October 2014 #143AB was born in 1932, resides in a care home and has dementia. In June 2007 she signed an EPA appointing her nephews MD and WD to be her attorneys on a joint and several basis. In September 2007 the EPA was registered.
In March 2007 MD and WD bought a property for AB to live in. They charged her rent for the six months that she lived there and she also paid the refurbishment costs of the work carried out by MD.
In January 2013 Brent Council wrote to the OPG expressing concerns about arrears of £23,000 in care home fees.
An investigation by the OPG showed that in Fe...
Re AB [2013] EWHC B39 (COP)
September 2014 #142AB was a young adult who had suffered a brain injury. She lived with her mother, stepfather and stepbrother. PQ was her father, whose whereabouts were unknown. In the past he had been physically violent and sectioned. AB’s mother had terminated her relationship with PQ and, apart from occasional contact visits, he had not seen his daughter for years. Mother and daughter subsequently moved and established new lives elsewhere. AB was currently intestate and one of her property and affairs’ deputies made an application for the execution of a statutory will to be authorised on he...
Re Gladys Meek; Jones v Parkin & ors [2014] EWCOP 1
September 2014 #142Mr Jones, the property and affairs deputy for Gladys Meek, asked for the court to authorise a statutory will leaving everything between National Trust for Scotland and a charity connected with the Christadelphian Church. He also asked for an order calling in the £275,000 security bond against her two former deputies, Mrs Miller and Mrs Johnson, and a direction as to whether he should refer the conduct of the two former deputies to the police.
Mrs Meek was born in 1919, widowed in 1961 and predeceased by her only child Barbara in 2010. Both her husband and Barbara died intestate an...
Re MRJ, JT and KT v Suffolk County Council & anr Case no: 12256266
September 2014 #142MRJ was born in 1932 and formally diagnosed with dementia in March 2009. In December 2011 her psychiatrist confirmed she had no capacity. Prior to moving into a care home at Christmas 2013 she had lived in sheltered accommodation.
On 3 March 2010 MRJ signed both a health and welfare and financial lasting powers of attorney appointing JT (her daughter) and KT (her grandson and JT’s son) jointly and severally. The attorneys applied to register the LPAs and the health and welfare LPA was registered on 11 June 2010.
There were technical defects with the financial LPA wh...