In the main action, the claimant sought to prove a purported will dated 2014. The second and fourth defendants challenged the validity of the will on the grounds first of lack of knowledge and approval and secondly, by a late amendment, of undue influence. That amendment required a substantial amount of further evidence to be filed. In a judgment following trial ([2022] EWHC 159 (Ch), available in the WTLR web reports as WTLR(w) 2022-08) the judge found the 2014 will to be invalid for want of knowledge and approval, but dismissed the claim that it was procured by undue influence. The jud...
Continue reading "Costs: Out of the ordinary"
Continue reading "Costs: The end of Cherry v Boultbee"
The claimant applied for detailed assessment of the defendant’s costs incurred in the administration of a deceased’s estate under s71(3) of the Solicitors Act 1974.
Ann Brealey died on 15 April 2014. Her will left the claimant as the main beneficiary. It named her brother, Peter Hayward, and Robin Peter Shepherd, a solicitor, as the executors and trustees of her will. The executors instructed the defendant firm to administer the deceased’s estate. Mr Shepherd was one of the two partners in that firm. The defendant’s bills for the administration of the estate had ...
Continue reading "Costs: Action not to be taken lightly"
The claimant was the daughter of the deceased and the defendant was the sister of the deceased. The deceased had made a will dated 13 September 2017. By that will the deceased had left £25,000 each to the claimant, the claimant’s son and another sister of the deceased. The remainder was left to the defendant.
The net estate was valued at around £245,000. The defendant stood to receive approximately £193,000 less legal fees.
In 1968 the deceased had separated from the claimant’s mother. Thereafter the claimant had a difficult relationship with the deceased. Prior to the birt...
A testatrix (T) left the residue of her estate (the trust fund) on trust to be divided into four equal shares, directing that one of them (the share fund) be held upon discretionary trusts for the benefit of her son, B, and his children and remoter issue. The other three shares were given to her other three children absolutely. The will trustees (who were the executrix of T’s will and another person appointed by her as a co-trustee) sought the approval of the court for a proposed appointment of all of the liquid funds in the share fund to B absolutely. The judge refused to approve the pr...
The claimant was the 50-year-old widow of the deceased. She brought a claim for reasonable financial provision to be made for her from the estate of her late husband, Ian Wooldridge.
The first, second and third defendants were the executors of the estate and adopted a neutral stance. The fourth and fifth defendants opposed the claim.
The claim was dismissed, and the costs of the claim fell to be determined.
The claimant accepted that she had to pay the costs of the first, second and third defendants assessed on the indemnity basis. She also accepted that she had to p...
A claim was made under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (1975 Act) by the mothers of the deceased’s children. The deceased had owned 50% of a private company. That shareholding was valued for probate at £5m. The executors of the deceased’s estate were his sister, who owned the other 50% of the shares and was a director of the company, and a solicitor from the firm which had drafted the deceased’s will, and who was also a director of the private company. The claim under the 1975 Act was upheld against the estate (reported as B v...