Topic: Will

Ilott v Mitson [2015] EWCA Civ 797

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | October 2015 # 153

The appeal concerned the quantification of an award for maintenance pursuant to the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (the 1975 Act). Section 1 of the 1975 Act confers the right on, among others, a child of the deceased to apply for an order if the will of the deceased or the intestacy rules did not make reasonable provision for that person. The provision was limited to awards of maintenance.

The appellant, who was an adult, was the only child of the deceased and was raised by the deceased, her father having died about t...

Williams v Seals & ors [2014] EWHC 3708 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | March 2015 #147

The deceased, Mr Seals, (D) committed suicide on 10 December 2013. He was depressed following his wife’s death from cancer in August 2010. However, the mental health team who saw him in September and November 2012 did not identify any major disordering mental illness. After his wife’s death D renewed a childhood friendship with the applicant Mrs Williams (B) and letters he wrote to her suggested a considerable degree of emotional dependence upon her. On 12 May 2011 he made a will using B’s solicitors and appointed her his executrix. He left her all his property and assets. At the same ti...

King v Dubrey & ors [2014] EWCH 2083 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | October 2014 #143

The deceased, June Fairbrother, (D), a retired policewoman, made a will in March 1998 leaving legacies to friends and family, the 3rd to 14th defendants ,the executors and legatees and the residue to the 15th to 21st defendants, animal charities (the charities). In June 2007 D’s nephew, Mr King, the claimant (C) had a conversation with her. She was increasingly elderly and frightened of going into a home, and he agreed to move in with her to look after her. He had spent some time in prison as a result of an offence under the Companies Act and was living in the property of a busi...

Loring v Woodland Trust [2013] EWHC 4400 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | May 2014 #139

The testatrix, T, died on 1 September 2011 leaving an estate with a net value of £680,805. Her will, dated 2 February 2001, included provision for a nil rate band legacy for her children and grandchildren under clause 5 which stated:

‘MY TRUSTEES shall set aside out of my residuary estate assets or cash of an aggregate value equal to such sum as is at the date of my death the amount of my unused nil rate band for inheritance tax and to hold the same for such of the following as shall survive me.’

The residue was left to the first defendant, the Woodland Trust ...

Markou & anr v Goodwin & ors [2013] EWHC 4570 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | May 2014 #139

Mrs Eileen Rand died on 4 November 2007 aged 79 having executed two wills during her lifetime – one dated 20 June 2007 and the other 18 December 1969.

Mrs Rand had two siblings – Horace (known as Bill) and Derek. Bill married twice, the second time to Mrs Rand’s best friend since school Lillian (known as Pat).

In 1967 at the age of 38 Mrs Rand married for the first and only time to Edward Rand (known as Ted). Ted was already a widower and much older than Mrs Rand. Ted died after 18 months of marriage and left his entire estate including the martial home to Mrs Rand. Ted had...

Haider v Syed

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | April 2014 #138

This was a challenge to the purported will of Mrs Naseem Syed Khan (the deceased) on the basis that it was a forgery. The deceased died on 17 July 2008. Mr Jafar Ali Khan (Mr Khan) was the deceased’s husband. Mr Khan had survived the deceased and had taken out letters of administration in respect of her estate on the basis that she had died intestate. Mr Khan died on 8 January 2011 leaving a will dated 2 September 2010.

Mr Syed Ali Haider (the claimant) was the deceased’s nephew. Mr Mehdi Hassan Syed (the defendant) was the sole executor and main beneficiary of the la...

Sylvester v Sylvester HC11C00458

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2014 #136

The deceased was born in Carriacou on 20 July 1925. She married her husband in 1953. He moved to London for work in the 1950s. She joined him in 1957. She died in London on 18 February 2008 aged 82, leaving a will dated 7 October 2007. The court had to decide whether she was domiciled in Carriacou or London at the date of her death in order to establish if it had jurisdiction to entertain a claim by the claimant pursuant to the Inheritance Act 1975 for reasonable financial provision out of the estate. The issue of domicile was ordered to be tried as a preliminary issue by an ord...

Re Stolkin; Greaves v Stolkin [2013] EWHC 1140 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | December 2013 #135

The deceased testator, Leslie Stolkin, (T) had two sons from his marriage, the defendant Gary (G) and Mark (M). T divorced their mother in 1989. In September 1997 Pauline Greaves the claimant, (P), also divorced, moved in with T as cohabitant and became financially dependent on him. In 2001, T executed a will effectively leaving his entire estate to G, and also naming him as sole executor and trustee unless he died before T in which case M, a successful and wealthy businessman, would inherit . The will made no provision for P, but T left some notes directing that she was to receive regul...

Tociapski v Tociapski [2013] EWHC 1770 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | December 2013 #135

The claimant and defendant are the two sons of Mr Igor Tociapski (the deceased), who died on 12 March 2010 and had made a will dated 20 June 2007 and a later will dated 13 May 2009 (the 2009 will). The 2007 will shared the estate between the two sons. The 2009 will gave the entire estate to the defendant. By a transfer dated 12 February 2010 (the transfer), the deceased gave to the defendant a property known as Hillcrest Cottage, in Northamptonshire.

The claimant sought to set aside the 2009 will on the grounds that the deceased did not know and approve its contents alternatively...