Allen v Webster [2024] WTLR 775
Autumn 2024 #196By the underlying claim the appellant (the claimant at first instance) had sought a declaration as to the extent of his beneficial interest in a residential property (the property) which he and the respondent (the defendant at first instance) had purchased in joint names, having been at that time a cohabiting couple. Following a dispute, the claimant had moved out of the property only two years or so after it had initially been purchased. Prior to moving out, the claimant had contributed to the mortgage repayments in equal shares with the defendant, but had ceased to make any further con...
Biria v Biria & ors [2024] WTLR 785
Autumn 2024 #196The deceased passed away aged 97 on 21 January 2022. On 1 May 2020 he had purported to execute a will. At that time there were extant proceedings before the Court of Protection seeking an assessment of his capacity to manage his own affairs and expressing concern that he was being exploited by two of his children (the first and second defendants). On 24 April 2020 the Court of Protection made a declaration that there was reason to believe he lacked capacity to manage his own affairs and ordered an assessment.
The claimant was another of the deceased’s children and had been express...
Dryden v Young & ors [2024] WTLR 843
Autumn 2024 #196The deceased made a will dated 26 May 2016. The will gifted the residue of the deceased’s estate in equal shares to 15 charitable beneficiaries. The construction of seven of those gifts was in doubt.
The gifts in question had been carried over from the deceased’s previous wills, of which only one had been located. Will files did not survive and the drafting solicitor had little recollection of what the deceased had intended. There was little evidence of charitable gifting made by the deceased in life.
The probate value of the deceased’s estate was £1.48m and each one-fiftee...
The Estate of Nafisa Hasan v Digit Ltd & anr [2024] WTLR 883
Autumn 2024 #196The court determined preliminary issues in respect of whether the deceased (who died in 2022 after the issue of proceedings) had a beneficial interest in a residential flat and, if so, what that interest was and whether the interest was held on an express trust, constructive trust or resulting trust, or under the doctrine of proprietary estoppel.
The first defendant was a Cayman Island company incorporated in 1998, which acquired the leasehold title of the flat shortly afterwards. The first defendant was incorporated by the deceased’s former husband, a colonel in the Pakistani arm...
Gowing & ors v Ward & anr [2024] WTLR 901
Autumn 2024 #196The deceased died in 2020 at the age of 91. He had three children, one of whom had predeceased him in 2015. The defendants were the deceased’s surviving children, the personal representatives of the deceased’s estate, and the equal beneficiaries of the residuary estate pursuant to a will made in 2018. The claimants were the granddaughters of the deceased (the children of his predeceased son). A family rift opened in 2015 following the death of the deceased’s son. The claimants contended that:
- (a) the deceased lacked testamentary capacity;
- (b) he did not know and app...
Kettridge v Adams & ors [2024] WTLR 979
Autumn 2024 #196The testatrix died on 19 February 2021. She left a will dated 14 February 2021 leaving all of her property (other than a small bequest to a charity) to the defendants (her sons). The claimant brought a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (IPFDA).
The claimant and the testatrix had begun spending time together in 2014. In 2018, the claimant proposed marriage and the testatrix accepted (though they did not marry and the defendants said that the testatrix had said that she did not really intend to marry the claimant). From September 201...
Lonsdale & ors v Wedlake Bell LLP & ors [2024] WTLR 1007
Autumn 2024 #196The first claimant brought a claim in his individual capacity as settlor and trustee for professional negligence against the solicitors he had instructed in relation to a settlement made in 1987, which created a discretionary trust (the trust) in favour of a number of beneficiaries including the first claimant’s children. The first claimant intended to benefit his own children (the children) with his nieces/nephews as backstop beneficiaries should the trust in favour of the children fail. However the terms of the trust, which gave the beneficiaries the right to income when they attained ...
Rahman v Hassan & ors [2024] WTLR 1069
Autumn 2024 #196The 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...
Benjamin v Benjamin & anr [2024] WTLR 411
Summer 2024 #195The claimant was the child of the first defendant (his father) and the second defendant (his mother). On 5 March 1999, the defendants settled shares in the family company (BPL) on themselves as trustees of a discretionary trust for the benefit of the claimant and his brother and their issue.
The claimant’s case was that the defendants had assured him that half of the family business would eventually pass to him, but that he suspected that something had happened which was inconsistent with those assurances. In March 2021, the claimant requested from BPL’s accountants a copy of its ...
Folds Farm Trustees Ltd & anr v Cutts & ors [2024] WTLR 503
Summer 2024 #195The claimants were the corporate trustees of two family trusts established respectively by a deed of variation relating to the will of Oliver Cutts (the 1997 trust), and by the will of Susan Cutts (the will trust). The beneficiaries of these trusts were Susan’s children, grandchildren and remoter issue who were living on or born before specified dates.
The primary asset of the trusts was Folds Farm, a farm in the New Forest in Hampshire comprising various buildings and farmland totalling almost 340 acres. The majority of the farm was within the will trust, while the 1997 trust com...