Barnett v Creggy [2014] EWHC 3080 (Ch)
January/February 2016 #156This was a claim for an account and associated enquiries and for equitable compensation brought by Jeffrey and Peter Barnett (the claimants) against their former solicitor Stuart Creggy (Mr Creggy). The claimants were entrepreneurs in the restaurant business. Mr Creggy’s practice consisted of establishing offshore companies for clients and providing services to those clients in respect of depositing, investing and withdrawing funds held in those companies. Mr Creggy ceased to be a solicitor in 1998, but continued to provide those services until 2002.
The claimants were clien...
Ingrey v King & anr [2015] EWHC 2137 (Ch)
January/February 2016 #156This was an application by Mr Ingrey, the proving executor of the estate of John Henry King (the deceased) seeking direction in relation to the distribution of Mr King’s estate (the estate). The defendant, Ashley King, is the deceased’s son and sole beneficiary of the estate following the compromise of a claim brought under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 by the deceased’s widow and two young children.
The estate was sworn for probate with a gross value of c.£9.6m and a net value of c.£3.5m. The assets in the estate included a share of a par...
James & anr v Louisewilliams & ors [2015] EWHC 1166 (Ch)
December 2015 #155Thomas Edward Weetman (the deceased) died on 3 November 2008. His last will was executed on 19 September 2008 (the will). The principal assets in his estate (the estate) were shares in his company Weetman (Haulage & Storage) Ltd (the company) which he had successfully built up during his lifetime, and shares in a property known as Pasturefields Enterprise Park (the property) which the deceased owned but which was occupied, in whole or in part, by the company. The estate was of considerable value but illiquid. The will provided that fifty percent of the deceased’s shares in the ...
Preedy & anr v Dunne & ors [2015] EWHC 2713 (Ch)
December 2015 #155This claim concerned a property. The freehold had belonged legally and beneficially to J who had run a business of a pub and restaurant from the property in partnership with her husband B. J died in 1997. On her death the property passed by her will to her executors and trustees, essentially for the benefit of B for his life and, subject to B’s interest, for J’s three children in equal shares (the will trust).
The claimants were the current trustees of the will trust and hence the legal owners of the freehold of the property. The first defendant was J’s son (one of the beneficiari...
Wilby v Rigby [2015] EWHC 2394 (Ch)
December 2015 #155This was an application to remove Mr Ian Rigby (Ian) as administrator of the estate of Sybil Rigby. Sybil Rigby died on 30 November 2011, leaving two adult children, Ian Rigby and Janice Wilby (Janice). By her will dated 8 February 2001 Sybil Rigby appointed Janice and Ian to be her executors and trustees and gave the residue of the estate to Ian and Janice in equal shares. The value of the net estate was £271,134. The estate contained Sybil Rigby’s home (the property), which represented more than half the value in the estate
Janice initially agreed that Ian could administer...
Barclays Wealth Trustees (Jersey) Ltd & anr v HMRC [2015] EWHC 2878 (Ch)
December 2015 #155On 21 June 2001 the settlor, who was then non-domiciled in the UK, settled cash derived from a Jersey bank account on the trusts of a Jersey-resident discretionary trust called the Michael Dreelan Trust (MDT). The settlor became deemed domiciled in the UK for inheritance tax purposes from the beginning of the tax year 2003/04. Subsequently, on 4 April 2008, the settlor and others set up another settlement called the Dreelan Brothers Joint Trust (DBJT) and 25,000 ordinary shares in Qserv Limited were transferred from the MDT. These were later sold for cash that was UK situs property. On 2...
Fielden v Christie-Miller & ors [2015] EWHC 2940 (Ch)
December 2015 #155This hearing was part of the dispute over the succession to the Swyncombe Estate in Oxfordshire (see also [2015] WTLR 1165, [2015] EWHC 752 (Ch)). This hearing concerned three applications by Stephen Christie-Miller (Stephen) to re-plead his case.
The estate, which consists of land in and Swyncombe, is in two parts. One part is held upon the trusts of a settlement dated 18 February 1976 (the settlement) executed by Charles Wakefield Christie-Miller (Charles). The other part is held upon the trusts declared by the will of Charles’ son, William John Christie-Miller dated 15 March 19...
Re Harte [2015] EWHC 2351
December 2015 #155By her will dated 10 November 2009 the deceased was expressed to give ‘all my personal property of whatsoever and wheresoever situated to my trustees on the following trusts:
3.1 To pay my just debts, funeral and testamentary expenses.
3.2 For Patrick absolutely.
3.3 Provided that if Patrick should not survive me, then my Trustees shall hold my residuary estate as follows:
4.1 as to one tenth to Douglas Victor Harris
4.2 as to one part to Michael Harris
4.3 as to one part to Pamela Ellen How
4.4 as to one part to Sybil Maisie Wickens
<...Cadogan Petroleum plc & Ors v Mark Tolley & Ors [2011] EWHC 2286 (Ch)
November 2015 #154The claimants, who were a group of companies engaged in the business of exploration and exploitation of gas reserves in Ukraine, brought claims against, inter alia, the fourth and fifth defendants (Vivcharyk defendants), respectively the former chief operating officer and the company controlled by him, in relation to alleged bribes or secret commissions which, directly or indirectly, they received in connection with commercial contracts for the supply or acquisition by the Cadogan Group of drilling equipment and services, two gas plants and a company. Proceedings were issued on ...
The Law Society v Elsdon & ors [2015] EWHC 1326 (Ch)
November 2015 #154The first defendant practised as a solicitor under his own name until 2013. In that year he began to practise through the third defendant company, which was authorised as a ‘licensed body’ for the purposes of the Legal Services Act 2007. The directors of the third defendant were the first and second defendants.
On 8 December 2014 the Solicitors Regulation Authority decided to intervene in the practice of the first and third defendants and sent notices to the defendants advising them of this.
The decision of the adjudication panel recorded that it decide...