Folds Farm Trustees Ltd & anr v Cutts & ors [2024] WTLR 503
Summer 2024 #195The claimants were the corporate trustees of two family trusts established respectively by a deed of variation relating to the will of Oliver Cutts (the 1997 trust), and by the will of Susan Cutts (the will trust). The beneficiaries of these trusts were Susan’s children, grandchildren and remoter issue who were living on or born before specified dates.
The primary asset of the trusts was Folds Farm, a farm in the New Forest in Hampshire comprising various buildings and farmland totalling almost 340 acres. The majority of the farm was within the will trust, while the 1997 trust com...
Grosskopf v Grosskopf & anr [2024] WTLR 530
Summer 2024 #195The parties were siblings and beneficiaries of a trust established by their parents. In addition, the defendants were also the trustees. The claimant applied to appoint a judicial trustee in place of the defendants on the basis that the defendants had engaged in conduct that appeared to have been in breach of their duties as trustees or may have been dishonest. The parties had previously entered into an arbitration agreement before the Beth Din of the Federation of Synagogues. The court and the tribunal had previously determined that the tribunal had jurisdiction to consider the claim. T...
Henchley & ors v Thompson & anr [2024] WTLR 559
Summer 2024 #195The settlor executed a trust deed dated 12 September 1960 (the trust), under the terms of which the trustees were given a power of appointment over capital and income for the benefit of the beneficiaries and their respective issue. The power was limited by a deed dated 28 March 1978 so that it could be exercised only in relation to the capital of the trust fund to which a beneficiary then enjoyed an interest in possession. In default of appointment, the capital and income of the trust fund was to be held for such of the beneficiaries living on the perpetuity day (which was to be calculat...
Kenig v Thomson Snell & Passmore LLP [2024] WTLR 595
Summer 2024 #195The claimant and his sister were beneficiaries of the will of their mother. The defendant, a solicitors’ firm, was instructed by the sole executor to administer the estate. The defendant’s original costs estimate was £10,000-£15,000 plus VAT, but its invoices totalled £54,410.99 plus VAT and expenses. The claimant challenged the fees charged and applied for an assessment under s71(3) Solicitors Act 1973, which a costs judge ordered. The defendant appealed on grounds restricted to Tim Martin Interiors Ltd v Akin Gump LLP [2011], namely, that it was not open to a beneficiary to challenge l...
Lane v Lane & ors [2024] WTLR 615
Summer 2024 #195The claims concerned the estate of Monica Lane (the deceased), who died on 8 May 2019. The deceased had three children, David, Susan (the first defendant) and Peter, the last of whom predeceased her leaving two children, the second and third defendants. David died on 17 January 2021 and Karen (the claimant) was David’s widow and personal representative of his estate.
The deceased and David formed a trading farming partnership, embodied in a 12 October 2002 partnership agreement. That agreement provided that the partnership would dissolve on, among other things, permanent incapacit...
Lane v Lane & ors (costs) [2024] WTLR 639
Summer 2024 #195The claims concerned the estate of Monica Lane (the deceased), who died on 8 May 2019. The deceased’s final will was dated 23 February 2013 (the will). By the will the deceased left her son David her ‘share and interest’ in the partnership (the gift), among other assets. The deceased’s daughter Susan (the first defendant) and David were named as executors.
The first defendant had contended that the deceased became permanently incapacitated shortly before her death, causing the dissolution of the partnership. The argument that the gift failed by ademption and fell into residue had ...
Otitoju v Onwordi [2024] WTLR 655
Summer 2024 #195Two applications had been made concerning the funeral arrangements of the deceased. In the first application, the claimant (one of the deceased’s children who had the support of her siblings and her mother) applied for an order that she be entitled to possession of the deceased’s body and to make arrangements for its disposal, and for a limited grant of letters of administration (on the basis that the deceased died intestate) under the Senior Courts Act 1981 and an interim injunction restraining the defendant (the deceased’s former partner) from taking possession of the deceased’s body a...
Pead v Prostate Cancer UK & ors [2024] WTLR 667
Summer 2024 #195The claimant applied for a non-party costs order against GWCA Solicitors Ltd (GWCA), which had been joined as the ninth defendant. The application arose out of a claim for the rectification of the will of James Murray McKay deceased (the deceased) or, in the alternative, for a declaration as to the true construction of clause 11 of the will. The will, which had been drafted by a predecessor practice to GWCA, made provision in clause 11 for the division of the deceased’s residuary estate between ‘such of the beneficiaries named in clauses 4.1 to 4.8 inclusive absolutely as shall survive m...
Pierce & anr v Barton & anr [2024] WTLR 679
Summer 2024 #195By clause 5 of his will dated 2 November 2015 (the will) Malcolm Barton (the testator) gave to his son, the first defendant, a specific bequest which was described as Flat 2, 35 Upper Church Road, Weston-Super-Mare (the flat). The testator died on 12 May 2019. Probate was granted to the claimants who were two of the partners in the firm of Wards, Solicitors (Wards) on 10 January 2020. At the time of making the will and at the time of his death the testator was the sole surviving registered proprietor of a legal charge dated 17 November 2006 over the flat securing the sum of £87,727.52 (t...
Rea v Rea & ors [2024] WTLR 701
Summer 2024 #195Anna Rea had made wills dated 29 May 1986 (the 1986 will) and 7 December 2015 (the 2015 will).
At first instance, Anna’s daughter (the appellant) claimed to propound the 2015 will in solemn form. Her brothers (the respondents) counterclaimed to set aside the 2015 will, alleging lack of testamentary capacity, want of knowledge and approval, undue influence, and fraudulent calumny. They sought to propound the 1986 will.
The claim had previously been tried and then appealed, ultimately to the Court of Appeal, where a retrial was ordered.
On the retrial, HHJ Hodge KC fou...