Continue reading "Probate: Do ask, do tell"
This was an appeal from notices of determination by HMRC which held that dispositions in the will of Beryl Coulter (the deceased) did not fall within s23 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984, and were therefore not exempt from inheritance tax. The deceased died on 9 October 2007 domiciled in Jersey. Her final will was dated 1 October 2004 and probate was granted in the probate division of the Royal Court of Jersey on 25 October 2007. The will made several legacies totalling £210,000 and the residue passed to her executors to be held on the terms of the Coulter Trust for the purpose of the pro...
Mrs Ross, the testatrix, (T) had three adult children, the defendants: Diana (D), Lorenzo (L) and Gianni (G). T died on 13 July 2008 leaving a will dated 21 October 1988 (the will). At her death T held the following assets:
The testatrix (W) was the second wife of the late Brian Taylor (H) and had two step sons, David (D) and Paul (P), the first and second defendants. She had a sister, Penny, who married the eighth defendant, Mr Bruce Peskin (B), and who had three children, the fifth to seventh defendants, Cindy, Andrew and Dominic (the 2008 beneficiaries). W and H visited Penny and B, until a few years before they died. They stopped doing so after B, who was in financial difficulties, repeatedly pressurised them to obtain financial assistance in relation to a property development and sale. As a result of t...
Continue reading "Probate: A blast from the past"
>The defendant (Frank) obtained probate of his late mother’s will dated 26 July 2004 (Abbie and the 2004 will). The 2004 will appointed Frank sole executor of Abbie’s estate, which was bequeathed to Frank absolutely.
The claimants (Stephen and Victoria), Abbie’s other surviving children, challenged the validity of the 2004 will on the ground that their mother did not know and approve its contents. They sought revocation of the grant of probate made to Frank and a grant in solemn form of a will dated 24 January 1999 (the 1999 will), by which Abbie’s re...
The testator, Ranjit Singh (D), died in 2009. He had executed a will dated 3 May 1999, naming his eldest son, the claimant (J), as executor and sole beneficiary. The will was attested by two witnesses, Maurice Grantham (G) and Gurdial Ahluwalia (A). D’s daughter, Balvinder Ahluwalia (B), challenged the will on the grounds that the two witnesses had signed it on two separate and distinct occasions at different places. G gave evidence that he had signed the will when D visited his house and he was the only witness present, but he was not able to identify the will when it was shown to...
Continue reading "Probate: Warring executors"
Continue reading "Probate: Jarndyce revisited"
Mr Wharton (D) had been married many years ago and had two daughters from that marriage, Victoria and Gina, (V and G) the third and fourth defendants. He had another relationship which resulted in a third child, Amanda (A), the fifth defendant. He divorced his first wife in 1977 and cohabited with the claimant, Maureen, (M) who took his surname but did not marry him until immediately prior to his death in 2008. Between 1979 and 1995 D made and executed three successive wills all leaving substantial property to M and providing for his children, and some of M’s children, in various w...