Rossendale Borough Council v Hurstwood Properties & ors [2020] WTLR 253
Spring 2020 #178Two schemes to avoid the payment of National Non-domestic Rates (NDR), by granting a short lease of unoccupied properties to special purpose vehicle companies (SPVs), which were then allowed to be dissolved, either by voluntary winding up or as dormant companies. Under the NDR legislation, the liability to pay rates on unoccupied property fell on the ‘owner’, being the person entitled to possession, which would include a lessee. However, properties owned by a company being wound up voluntarily were excluded under the applicable Regulations from being subject to NDR at all.
The cla...
Naylor & anr v Barlow & ors [2019] WTLR 981
Autumn 2019 #176The claimants were practising solicitors and trustees of a trust created by the will of John Hine (T) who died on 4 January 1992. T had had four children. Two, Beryl Clowes and John Hine, were the third and fourth defendants. One, Philip Hines, pre-deceased T leaving two children, Judith Barlow and Janet Lomax, the first and second defendants. The fourth, Basil Hine, had survived T but died before the proceedings were issued leaving a widow, Barbara Hine, who was the fifth defendant.
T had been the sole freehold owner of the family farm, Brown Edge Farm. Clause 3 of his will devis...
Slattery v Jagger & ors [2015] EWHC 3976 (Ch)
March 2017 #167The claimants (the executors of the estate of Mr Jagger) applied for construction or alternatively rectification of the last will of Mr Jagger dated 10 June 2011 (the 2011 will). It was common ground that the 2011 will was valid and revoked an earlier will dated 5 April 2007 (the 2007 will).
Mr Jagger made the 2011 will following the death of two of his sons from his first marriage. It was professionally drafted. Under the 2007 will his second wife received a life interest in the matrimonial home. The 2011 will represented a departure from this intention.
The 2011 will cont...
Jump & anr v Lister & anr [2016] EWHC 2160 (Ch)
January/February 2017 #166John Raymond Winson and Mable Winson (Mr & Mrs Winson) made ‘mirror image’ wills with the first defendant, a solicitor employed by the second defendant, on 17 August 2010 by which, in simple terms (and subject to two minor specific legacies by Mrs Winson), they left their estate to each other but, if that gift failed, left pecuniary legacies to the same named individuals and charities with the net residue passing to the claimants in equal shares. In each will there was a survivorship clause in the following terms:
‘My estate is to be divided as if any person ...
Goenka v Goenka [2014] EWHC 2966 (Ch)
April 2016 #158This was a claim for reasonable financial provision under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 by the widow of Nirupam Goenka (the deceased). The deceased was a member of a statutory pension scheme for NHS employees. The deceased and the claimant had been married for 15 years and together had three sons, aged between 11 and 16, who were represented in these proceedings by their litigation friend, the Official Solicitor. The claimant and the deceased entered into divorce proceedings and a decree nisi of divorce was made on 15 August 2012. On 7 September ...
Wilby v Rigby [2015] EWHC 2394 (CH)
April 2016 #158This was a claim by the claimant (C) against her brother (D) relating to the administration of the estate of their late mother (S).
S died on 30 November 2011 leaving two children: C and D. S’s will appointed C and D as executors and trustees and she gave her whole estate, upon the usual trusts for sale and conversion, to be held in trust to divide the net sale proceeds equally between C and D.
The main asset in the estate was S’s property worth in the order of £165,000 (the House). There were also capital and other investments in the order of some £108,000. The...
Vaughan-Jones & anr v Vaughan-Jones & ors [2015] EWHC 1086 (Ch)
September 2015 #152The claimants were the executors of the will of the deceased dated 8 September 2000 whereby his residuary estate passed to his widow and three sons in equal shares absolutely. The first defendant was the deceased’s widow and the first claimant and second and third defendants were his sons.
Under the will, inheritance tax would be payable on the estate in respect of land and farming assets which did not qualify for agricultural property or business property relief on the three quarters of the residuary estate which had passed to the deceased’s sons. The beneficiaries decided that t...
Pullan v Wilson & ors [2014] EWHC 126 (Ch)
May 2014 #139The claimant (Mr Pullan) was a beneficiary of ten high-value family trusts. The first defendant (Mr Wilson) was an accountant who had been appointed as a professional trustee of those trusts. Mr Wilson was also a non-executive director of three of the companies in which the trusts held shares. The second and third defendants were the co-trustees of the ten trusts and were not subject to the relief sought by Mr Pullan.
Mr Pullan brought a claim against Mr Wilson as he considered that the professional charges of £849,890 for the period from 12 March 2007 to 4 November 2010 exceeded...