April 2012 #135 – Law Journals

Introduction: A choice selection

Nicholas Le Poidevin QC introduces an issue devoted to articles by New Square Chambers ‘Private client work gives rise to a dense variety of disputes hard to match in any other area of legal practice. We hope that readers will find this special issue of the Trusts and Estates Law & Tax Journal both useful …

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Probate: Body matters

Jane Evans-Gordon discusses the quandaries that can arise on the disposal of a dead body ‘Bodies cannot be bought or sold, stolen, criminally damaged or, as was once tried, seized by creditors.’ Thomas Mann said that ‘It is a fact that a man’s dying is more the survivors’ affair than his own’.Regrettably, while the Lord …

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Wills: Has the golden rule lost its lustre?

Charles Holbech reviews the importance of a medical opinion for the aged or infirm testator ‘Even though the golden rule may not, on close examination, be a golden rule, it does not follow that solicitors would be to safe to disregard it: they should be aware of the risk of a negligence claim should they …

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Trusts: ‘Puppet masters’ beware

Mark Hubbard explains the ramifications of a case in which the Court of Appeal upheld an order against settlors to disclose trust documents under their ‘control’ ‘ North Shore is a further example of a hardening of English judicial attitudes against those who are seen as using corporate and trust structures as devices to commit …

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Donatio Mortis Causa: The doctrine of giving

Richard Selwyn Sharpe examines how a gift in contemplation of death is treated in the modern world ‘The gift must be conditional on the donor’s death and is therefore revocable until that event occurs. The donor sometimes expresses the intention in words to the donee that the gift is conditional on death but this is …

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Swapped Wills: Signing your life away

The Court of Appeal’s decision in Marley v Rawlings was the correct one, as Alexander Learmonth reports ‘The existing cases on s20 of the Administration of Justice Act 1982 have already taken rectification about as far as it should go; and there is no scope for using the section to correct other sorts of errors, …

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Agricultural Property Relief: A tale of two farms

Leigh Sagar clarifies the occupation of agricultural property for agricultural purposes ‘Two recent decisions highlight some of the difficulties that are being faced by executors in the area of agricultural property: HMRC v Atkinson and Hanson v HMRC.’ Agricultural property relief is available for transfers of agricultural land and pasture and specified buildings and woodlands …

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Testamentary Grants: Ways and means

Thompson v Bee highlights the disputes over rights of way that can arise from inconsistent will drafting, as James Thom QC relates On the death of a landowner who is not intestate, the land will vest in the deceased’s personal representatives. Under the will, the land may be split up and different parcels may be …

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