Mosley v Popley [2012] EWHC 3905 (Ch)
April 2013 #128The second defendant (Mr Mosley) appealed against the judgment of Deputy Master Bartlett of 9 May 2012 dismissing his application to strike out the claim brought against him by the claimant (Mr Popley). Mr Popley’s father had caused a trust known as the Blue Ridge Trust (the trust) to be settled in St Vincent and the Grenandines. The shares in the first defendant company (Atem) were held by the third defendant corporate trustee on the terms of the trust. In 2000, Atem purchased White Owl Barn, Tenterden, Kent. Atem remained legal and beneficial owner of the property until 2011. In ...
Paynter & anr v Hinch [2013] EWHC 13 (Ch)
April 2013 #128>The defendant (Frank) obtained probate of his late mother’s will dated 26 July 2004 (Abbie and the 2004 will). The 2004 will appointed Frank sole executor of Abbie’s estate, which was bequeathed to Frank absolutely.
The claimants (Stephen and Victoria), Abbie’s other surviving children, challenged the validity of the 2004 will on the ground that their mother did not know and approve its contents. They sought revocation of the grant of probate made to Frank and a grant in solemn form of a will dated 24 January 1999 (the 1999 will), by which Abbie’s re...
Clarke v Meadus [2010] EWHC 3117 (Ch)
March 2013 #127Mrs Clarke was the daughter of Mrs Meadus and Mr R Meadus, who owned a property known as Bonavista as joint tenants. Mr Meadus died in March 1995. Mrs Clarke alleged that prior to his death Mr Meadus expressed that he wanted Bonavista to remain in the family after he and his wife were dead. They wanted Mrs Clarke to live with Mrs Meadus, at Bonavista, for the remainder of her life and she would have Bonavista on Mrs Meadus’s death. Mrs Meadus asked Mrs Clarke and her husband to move in, which they did in September 1995, after allegedly receiving repeated promises that Mrs Meadus would le...
Lawie v Lawie & ors [2012] EWHC 2940 (Ch)
January/February 2013 #126The claimant (SL) sought rectification of a deed of trust that he and his late wife (PL) had executed in 2006.
SL and PL determined, on the advice of Mr Tollins (a financial advisor at the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society (the building society)) that they wanted £100,000 (just under half of their net assets at the time) to be held in a Legal & General portfolio bond, which was to be held on a flexible trust for the benefit of their children and grandchildren. They expressed an intention to be able to alter the class of discretionary objects and the percentage entitl...
Vimercati v BV Trustco Ltd & ors [2012] EWHC 1410 (Ch)
January/February 2013 #126The claimant, Ambra (A), who had been a beneficiary under the MBV Trust, disputed the price obtained by BV Securities for its 20% shareholding in Air Italy in view of certain subsequent transactions involving Meridiana and Air Italy Holdings, a company in which the third defendant and protector of the trust (G) had an interest through his investment holding company. A also threatened breach of trust proceedings against the trustees. G and the fourth and fifth defendants, his wife and son, remained beneficiaries under the trust but A’s interest had been severed under a deed of appoi...
Gudavadze & ors v Kay & ors [2012] EWHC 1683 (Ch)
December 2012 #125The deceased (Badri) was a wealthy Georgian businessman. Since Badri’s death litigation, in relation to both the devolution and administration of his estate, had been conducted in numerous jurisdictions. Mr Boris Berezovsky maintained claims against the estate on the basis of alleged joint ventures, but for the purpose of this action supported various members of Badri’s family (the family defendants) in their challenge of documents alleged to have testamentary force.
Badri’s half-cousin and sometime business assistant, Mr Joseph Kay (Mr Kay), had, since Badri...
Spurling & anr v Broadhurst & ors [2012] EWHC 2883 (Ch)
December 2012 #125Ronald Anthony Allcroft Gibbons (the testator), who had no family, made a handwritten will on 29 December 2010 by which he appointed the claimants as his executors and gave them his residuary estate ‘to hold on trust to pay my debts, taxes and testamentary expenses and pay the residue to Veronica Broadhurst, Ann Foden, the living grandchildren of Veronica Broadhurst, and David Spurling in equal shares’. The testator died the following year and the claimants, who considered the terms of the residuary gift to be ambiguous, sought a declaration as to its construction. The third ...
Re BXL Services [2012] EWHC 1877 (Ch)
December 2012 #125BXL Services (the company) was a charitable company limited by guarantee. Owing to government cuts and a large pension deficit, it became insolvent and the directors resolved to place it into administration pursuant to para 22 of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986 (the Act). No formal notice in the form prescribed by para 26(2) to Schedule B1 of the Act was given to the company itself. On one construction of the Act, this omission was fatal to the validity of the appointment. On a second construction, it was not an omission at all as such notice was not a requirement. On a third cons...
Fine v Fine [2012] EWHC 1811 (Ch)
December 2012 #125The settlors, who were husband and wife, each executed a trust deed in mirror terms in 1992, creating discretionary trusts. At the time the trust deeds were executed the settlors had only one grandchild, Maxwell. The trust deeds contained inter alia the following definition of the beneficiaries:
‘The settlor’s children, Tracey Mathew and Kitty and his [her] grandchild Maxwell, and remoter issue and the spouses, widows and widowers of such children, grandchildren and remoter issue.’
On the same date as the trust deeds were executed the settlors...