Manton & ors v Manton [2021] WTLR 245
Spring 2021 #182The claimants were four of the five trustees of a trust. The defendant was the other trustee. The trust property included the share capital of a holding company (‘the holding company’) which in turn had a wholly owned subsidiary (‘the subsidiary’). A third company (‘the trading company’), the shares of which were also held by the holding company, occupied and traded from premises owned by the subsidiary, to which it paid rent. This, together, with distributions of profits, generated the majority of the income flowing to the trustees. In 2016, a revocable appointment of a life interest ha...
Sargeant v Sargeant & anr [2018] WTLR 1451
Winter 2018 #170Joe Sargeant (the deceased) died on 10 May 2005 leaving a will dated 20 February 2002. He left a surviving spouse, Audrey Sargeant (who was known as Mary), and two children, Jeff and Jane. By the will, he left his guns and fishing equipment to Jeff and the balance of his personal chattels and the benefit of a life policy worth £75,000 to Mary. The remainder of his estate was left to his trustees on discretionary trust. The class was limited to Mary, Jane and Jane’s issue. His estate was valued at just over £3.2m.
Mary brought a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family...
Poole & anr v Everall & anr [2016] EWHC 2126 (Ch)
November 2016 #164This was a challenge to the formal and substantial validity of the last will of David Poole (the testator) dated 26 December 2012 (the December will) on the grounds of want of due execution, want of knowledge and approval, lack of testamentary capacity and undue influence.
The testator (who died on 19 March 2013) had suffered severe physical and psychiatric injuries following a motorcycle accident in 1985. The December will had been prepared by Mr Everall, the first respondent, who had been the testator’s paid carer/’supporting landlord’ since 1994. The December ...
Phillips v RSPB & ors [2012] EWHC 618 (Ch)
June 2012 #120Vera Gwendoline Spear (the testator) died on 5 January 2007 leaving a will dated 29 August 1997 (the will). Apart from a specific bequest of the testator’s pet parrot the will left the entirety of the testator’s estate on trust to her executors to be divided in equal shares between the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals, Monkey World Ltd and ‘the Owl Sanctuary Crow Ringwood Hampshire’. The value of the deceased’s residuary estate was approximately £260,000. The claimant was the testator’s sole executor an...
AIB Group (UK) plc v Mark Redler & Co WTLR(w) 2012-02
Web OnlyLiability of solicitors; breach of trust; property sold at loss; remortgaging
Ark & ors v Kaur & ors WTLR(w) 2010-10
Web OnlyWill, undue influence, knowledge and approval of will contents, evidence of execution.