Gavriel & anr v Davis [2022] WTLR 943
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2022 #188The claimants were the only beneficiaries of the estate of the deceased, who died in May 2016. The defendant executor in December 2016 obtained probate of the deceased’s will, which did not authorise remuneration of executors or trustees. Upon completion of the administration, the defendant sought to impose a charge of £27,300 for her time in administering the estate.
The claimants brought proceedings under CPR 64 seeking directions as to whether the defendant was entitled to remuneration. In her evidence in response, the defendant asserted an oral agreement with the clai...
Morris v Fuirer & ors [2022] WTLR 659
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2022 #187The claimant, who was the only child of Cynthia Morris (the testatrix), was the principal beneficiary under her will dated 25 October 2000 but not under later wills made on 28 November 2006 and 14 July 2010 (the wills). The testatrix died on 7 August 2017. Under the terms of her last will, the second and third defendants were appointed as executors; pecuniary legacies were bequeathed to the claimant (£35,000), the first defendant (£70,000) and the fourth defendant (£10,000); and her residuary estate was gifted to the sixth to ninth defendants who were charities. The claimant first intima...
Titcombe v Ison [2021] WTLR 1101
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2021 #184D was a close friend of the deceased and the sole beneficiary under the deceased’s will. C was the deceased’s niece. C claimed that a collection of jewellery in the estate was impressed with a secret trust in her favour, or alternatively that D was estopped from denying that the jewellery was held for C’s benefit.
C alleged that, in a Skype conversation in March 2013, the deceased had suggested that she wanted C to have her jewellery, C had said this was very generous and that she would love to receive it; that the deceased had said that rather than leaving it to C in the will, sh...
Sheffield v Sheffield & ors [2013] EWHC 3927 (Ch)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2014 #141John Vincent Sheffield (JVS) and his wife Ann Sheffield bought 1,000 acres of land in Hampshire in 1968 as tenants in common, with JVS owning 25% and Ann 75% (the 1968 settlement). The land included two farms, numerous residential properties and some shooting rights over adjoining land. Ann died in 1969 and left JVS a life interest in her estate and thereafter to their son Julian. In 1971 JVS married France (who predeceased him) and he lived on the estate until his death in May 2008.
In May 1976 JVS agreed a farming partnership of the farming land on the estate. JVS was entitled ...
Agarwala v Agarwala [2013] EWCA Civ 1763
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | April 2014 #138The appellant (Jaci) and the respondent (Sunil) were sister and brother-in-law respectively. This case related to the beneficial ownership of a property which Sunil had identified as a business opportunity (for Sunil to run as a B&B). Due to Sunil’s poor credit rating, the property was purchased in Jaci’s name via a mortgage, also in her name. Both parties agreed that there was an express oral agreement between them as to the terms on which the property was bought and held. The terms of that agreement were disputed and each party argued that they owned the beneficial inte...
Evans & ors v Lloyd & anr [2013] EWHC 1725 (Ch)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2013 #132Wynne Evans (Wynne) died on 2 September 2006 at the age of 79. He had worked on a farm from the age of 14. The farm latterly belonged to the defendants, David Lloyd (David) and his wife Elizabeth Lloyd (Elizabeth). Previously it had belonged to David’s parents and grandparents.
There was an issue as to whether Wynne had died testate or intestate. The claimants argued he died intestate but the defendants argued that he died testate and that the will, of which David was residuary beneficiary, had been lost.
The first claimant Howell Evans (Howell) is Wynne’s sole ...
Day v Harris & ors [2013] EWCA Civ 191
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | May 2013 #129Sir Malcolm Arnold (Sir Malcolm) was married twice and had two children by his first wife, Robert Malcolm Arnold (Mr Arnold) and Katherine Louise Arnold (Miss Arnold). In June 1976, after separating from his second wife, Sir Malcolm moved to a flat in Dun Laoghaire and, in the following month, sent several boxes to Miss Arnold containing (inter alia) books, paintings, sculptures and the manuscripts of various of his compositions. At the same time he sent a postcard to Mr Arnold on which he had written ‘All the books, pictures, sculptures etc are for you and Katherine to sh...
Shirt v Shirt [2012] EWCA Civ 1029
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | March 2013 #127Stanley Shirt, the claimant (C), owned the freehold of the family farm (Syda) and an agricultural tenancy (Rufford), which he lost in 2007 as a result of failure to pay the rent. He had three sons and a daughter. In 1974 C entered into a farming partnership with his wife, Marie (M), who died in 2004, and his son, Alan (A). Both farms were recorded as partnership assets. In 2006 C fell out with A and thereafter they carried on two separate businesses. A lived in a house on Rufford until the tenancy came to an end, when he moved into a caravan on Syda. C brought a claim for possession agai...