Topic: Estate Planning

FL v MJL [2019] WTLR 1171

The Applicant, who was the sole deputy for property and affairs of his brother MJL, made an application for

(i) ratification of small gifts previously made on behalf of MJL and

(ii) authority to make prospective substantial gifts on behalf of MJL.

Both he and three siblings each provided witness statements in support. MJL, who was in his sixties, was unmarried and had no children. He had suffered a cardiac arrest ten years previously and was in a persistent vegetative state. His estate was in excess of £17m (the larger proportion of which was comprised in an investme...

Badenach & anr v Calvert [2017] WTLR 873

The first appellant was a legal practitioner and a partner of the second appellant, a law firm. The solicitor received instructions from Jeffrey Doddridge (who was 77 years old at the time) to prepare his will, by which the entirety of his estate was to pass to the respondent, Roger Calvert, whom Mr Doddridge treated as his son. Mr Doddridge made no provision for his daughter by his first marriage. She brought a claim under the Testator’s Family Maintenance Act 1912 (Tas) (the TFM Act), and was successful in obtaining a court order that provision be made out of the clients estate. The co...

Legg v Burton [2017] WTLR 1017

The testatrix had two daughters, the first and second claimants. In July 2000, the testatrix and her husband made wills in favour of the survivor, and subject to that, in favour of the claimants in equal shares.

The husband died in May 2001. Between 2001 and 2004, the testatrix made 13 further wills. These progressively favoured the defendants (who were two of the grandsons of the testatrix and the partner of one of them), at the expense of the claimants. The last of these wills was made on 12 December 2014, when she made a further will under which the claimants took a legacy of £...