Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2024 #196The claimant was a distant relative of the late Mr Al-Hasib Al Mahmood (the deceased) and had become increasingly close with the deceased in the period since the claimant had moved to England. The claimant, and the claimant’s wife, had provided a great deal of care and assistance to the deceased and the deceased’s wife. Eventually, the claimant had moved in with the deceased and his wife.
The claimant alleged that on two separate occasions, five days apart from one another, the deceased performed acts amounting to donationes mortis causa, in favour of the claimant, regard...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2024 #195The claimant was the child of the first defendant (his father) and the second defendant (his mother). On 5 March 1999, the defendants settled shares in the family company (BPL) on themselves as trustees of a discretionary trust for the benefit of the claimant and his brother and their issue.
The claimant’s case was that the defendants had assured him that half of the family business would eventually pass to him, but that he suspected that something had happened which was inconsistent with those assurances. In March 2021, the claimant requested from BPL’s accountants a copy of its ...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2024 #195Two applications had been made concerning the funeral arrangements of the deceased. In the first application, the claimant (one of the deceased’s children who had the support of her siblings and her mother) applied for an order that she be entitled to possession of the deceased’s body and to make arrangements for its disposal, and for a limited grant of letters of administration (on the basis that the deceased died intestate) under the Senior Courts Act 1981 and an interim injunction restraining the defendant (the deceased’s former partner) from taking possession of the deceased...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Winter 2023 #193The dispute concerned which will of the deceased, Anna Rea, should be admitted to probate. Her first will dated 29 May 1986 gave all of her property to such of her four children as should survive her, if more than one in equal shares absolutely, subject to them surviving her by 28 days (the 1986 will).
A more recent will dated 7 December 2015 (the 2015 will) was witnessed by the solicitor who prepared it and the deceased’s GP. It provided for the deceased’s house to be left to the claimant, on account of the care she had given the deceased, with the residue to be divided between h...
Adam Stewart-Wallace outlines lessons from Hinduja on conducting litigation Hinduja v Hinduja [2021] involved the determination of two essentially independent, but independently interesting, applications, one regarding the appointment of the claimant’s daughter as litigation friend (the regularisation application), and the second regarding a privacy application made by the defendants (the privacy application). The court’s treatment …
Continue reading "Capacity: A nuanced approach"
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Kevin Kennedy and Andrew Walls report on the test in Banks v Goodfellow ‘This judgment provides very significant support that the Banks v Goodfellow test is the sole test for the court to apply when judging testamentary capacity post mortem.‘ The High Court in James v James [2018] has ruled that the test in Banks …
Continue reading "Capacity: Importance of the golden rule"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2017 #166This was an application to the Court of Protection concerning whether substantial damages awarded to ABC in a personal injury claim should be paid to and administered by ABC’s property and affairs deputy or should be held on revocable trust.
In prior litigation it had been common ground that ABC lacked litigation capacity but his capacity or the extent of his capacity to manage his financial affairs with appropriate support had been in dispute. This dispute was not decided due to the matter being settled. Subsequently a deputy was appointed by the Court of Protection upon th...
Lucie Sleeman sets out how the Office of the Public Guardian is affected by recent developments in mental capacity law ‘Under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 the Court of Protection exercises statutory jurisdiction over the property and affairs of the mentally incapacitated person but the practical administration and supervision of the person’s affairs are carried …
Continue reading "LPAs: When will your appointed attorneys in an LPA be allowed to make decisions?"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2015 #152Mr Butcher was born on 4 October 1939. He lived alone in a bungalow at 42 Russell Road, Enfield, London. He had no surviving parents and no children. He was close to his only sibling, Yvonne Butcher, with whom he lived. She died in 2002. Mr Butcher died on 5 May 2013 aged 73. He left a net estate worth £482,295.00. He was in good physical and mental health at the time of his death.
It was likely that in 1991 Mr Butcher had made a will which left his estate to Yvonne. In 2003, he made a new will following her death (‘the 2003 will’). He did so without the involvement of any profess...
