Magiera v Magiera [2016] EWCA Civ 1292
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | March 2017 #167The parties were previously married. In 1990, they acquired a house in London in their joint names. In April/May 2014, the wife issued an application under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (‘TLATA 1996‘) seeking an order for sale of the house, together with an order that the net proceeds be distributed between herself and her husband in equal shares. The husband contested the jurisdiction of the English court to entertain the wife’s proceedings and applied for them to be dismissed or stayed. The wife argued that England and Wales...
High Commissioner for Pakistan in the United Kingdom v Prince Mukkaram Jah, His Exalted Highness the 8th Nizam of Hyderabad [2016] EWHC 1465 (Ch)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | December 2016 #165The underlying claim concerned monies deposited in a new bank account with the National Westminster Bank (the bank) in the name of Mr Rahimtoola, the High Commissioner for Pakistan in London between 16 and 20 September 1948 (the Fund). The monies deposited had belonged to the state of Hyderabad/the 7th Nizam (Hyderabad’s absolute monarch at the time). The state of Hyderabad had been annexed to India between 13 and 18 September 2016. The underlying claim had been brought by Pakistan against the bank. A number of other defendants claiming an interest in the fund had been joined. Consequent...
Bellis v Challinor [2015] EWCA Civ 59
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2016 #156The case concerned a property investment scheme relating to land at and around an airport known as Fairoaks (the Fairoaks scheme). The Fairoaks scheme was the last in a substantial series of schemes (the Albemarle schemes) which, prior to the Fairoaks scheme, were unregulated collective investment schemes promoted by Egan Lawson (later ECS after its takeover by Erinaceous Group PLC (Erinaceous)) involving investment through a single purpose vehicle (SPV). The underlying subject matter of each scheme consisted of either commercial or development property or a mixture of both. The schemes ...
Re Barclays Private Bank & Trust CHP 2014/56
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | October 2015 # 153The claimant was the sole trustee of a unit trust. The trust had been terminated in 1988 and the assets released and distributed to approximately 100 unit trust holders with a final distribution having been made on the footing that four particular investments were unrealisable. Since then, sums had been received from those four investments, some of which had been distributed to unit holders and some of which (the residual amount) was payable to 71 unit holders (the residual holders) who despite significant efforts, including multiple letters (and telephone call were a telephone number wa...
Fielden v Christie-Miller & ors [2015] EWHC 87 (Ch)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2015 #152This was the hearing of an application for strike out of a Part 20 claim or alternatively summary judgment in favour of the defendants where the underlying proceedings related to two separate trusts: a settlement of land and other assets created on 18 February 1967 by Charles (the settlement) and a will dated 15 March 1998 of Charles’s son, John, who died on 20 December 2004 (the will fund).
The claimant in the underlying proceedings had sought declaratory relief regarding the construction of a March 2007 deed, alternatively rectification of it, whereby the trustees of the will fu...
AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler & Co Solicitors [2014] UKSC 58
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | March 2015 #147The appellant bank instructed the respondent solicitors to act in relation to a £3.3m re-mortgage on behalf of themselves and the borrowers. The borrowers’ property (the property) was already subject to a first charge in favour of Barclays. A part of the respondent’s instructions was to redeem the outstanding Barclays mortgage and to secure a first charge against the property in the appellant’s favour.
Due to an oversight, the respondents paid only £1,23m of the outstanding £1.5m Barclays loan and then transferred the balance to the borrowers. Having realised their error, the resp...
AB v CB & anr [2014] EWHC 2998 (Fam)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2015 #146This was an application for ancillary relief following the wife’s divorce petition of October 2012, upon which decree nisi was pronounced on 17 April 2013. At the time of these proceedings the wife was 44 years of age, and the husband was 41. On paper, the husband had almost no assets and a modest income. However, the husband came from a family of great wealth with substantial lands in Pembrokeshire which they had owned for generations. His financial security was therefore absolutely assured.
The wife and the husband had first met in 1999. They had married in February 200...
Shergill & ors v Khaira & ors [2014] UKSC 33
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | December 2014 #145The case concerned Gurdwaras (Sikh temples) which were established under the discipline and headship of His Holiness Brahamgiani, revered 108 Sant Maharaj Baba Gian Singh Ji, the religious head of the abode of saints at Nirmal Kutia in the Indian village of Johal (the First Holy Saint). Responsibility for the management of the Gurdwaras was given by the First Holy Saint to various individuals (some described as trustees), with the First Holy Saint having the authority to change any trustee, management member and the whole management system at any time. Numerous documents relating to the ...
Tchenguiz-Imerman v Imerman [2013] EWHC 3627
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2014 #136Beneficiaries of a number of offshore discretionary trusts were joined as parties on their application to contested financial remedy proceedings. The court had made an order that these beneficiaries should disclose copies of documents provided to them for the purposes of an application that had been made to the Royal Court of Jersey (RCtJ) by the trustee of some of those trusts. The RCtJ had given the beneficiaries permission to make such disclosure if they were ordered to do so but expressed concerns about and invited the court not to require such disclosure [2012] (2) JLR 51.
Th...
Travers Will Trust v HMRC [2013] UKFTT 436 (TC)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | December 2013 #135PL Travers (PLT) was the creator of the fictional literary character of Mary Poppins. In 1960 PLT entered into an agreement with Walt Disney which assigned parts of her copyright in the character to him. In this agreement PLT undertook not to exploit her dramatic, TV or radio rights in relation to Mary Poppins without Walt Disney’s consent.
PLT died in April 1996, two years after she had made an agreement with a theatre production company (CML) which related to the grant of an exclusive copyright licence to stage a show based on her books (the 1994 agreement). This agreement provi...