Hartogs v Sequent [2020] WTLR 505
Summer 2020 #179The first defendant was trustee of two trusts established by the claimant and named The Milky Way Settlement Trust (Milky Way) and the Mercurius Settlement (Mercurius). Each of the second and third defendants was a company wholly owned by the first defendant as trustee. The trusts were established by the claimant following estate planning advice given to him by professional advisers at Attendus Trust Company AG (Attendus).
Milky Way was part of an offshore trust structure, established in 2009 by the claimant to acquire and hold property in England for the occupation of the claiman...
HSBC v Tan Poh Lee & ors [2020] WTLR 493
Summer 2020 #179The plaintiff trustee applied for Beddoe relief authorising it to defend proceedings brought by one of the secondary beneficiaries of the trust in the Singapore High Court to terminate the trust. It sought permission to defend both on the substance and to challenge the Singapore court’s jurisdiction on the ground of forum non conveniens, since the trust was governed by Cayman law and the Cayman Islands was the forum for administration of the trust. The Singapore proceedings alleged that refusal to comply with the plaintiff beneficiary’s demands for distribution constituted a breach of tr...
Re H [2020] WTLR 479
Summer 2020 #179The claimant daughter brought a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 for provision out of the estate of her late father. The sole beneficiary of his estate was his widow, who was in residential care with severe health concerns, but who had been debarred from defending the proceedings by reason of non-compliance with earlier court orders. The claimant had been estranged from her parents since 2010 and had a number of health difficulties which made her unable to work. She lived in rented accommodation with two children, whose father visited them daily ...
Goss-Custard & anr v Templeman & ors [2020] WTLR 441
Summer 2020 #179Lord Templeman, who was a former member of the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords, was the father of the second and third defendants and the father-in-law of the first defendant. In 1996 he was remarried to a distant cousin, Sheila Edworthy, and moved home to live with her in a property called Mellowstone, Exeter, which she had inherited from her second husband, John Edworthy. Following his second marriage, Lord Templeman became very much part of his wife’s family and developed close bonds with her step-daughters, the claimants. On 3 December 2004 Lord Templeman and his wife made c...
GAAR Opinion notice [2020] WTLR 427
Summer 2020 #179By a referral dated 28 October 2019 HMRC referred to the GAAR Advisory Panel arrangements made by B as executor of the estate of his late mother, A, who died in April 2015. Four months before her death A incorporated a company, funded by £700,000 of share capital. The company established a discretionary trust, to which A gifted most of the share capital in the company. The beneficial class of the trust was current and former employees, and their descendants. The only employees of the company were A, B and B’s wife.
B claimed that the gift of shares to the trust was an exempt trans...
Amos v Mancini [2020] WTLR 417
Summer 2020 #179The deceased was married to the claimant. In 2019, when he was 81 and she was 74, a car they were driving in was involved in a road accident. The deceased died of his injuries. The claimant was driving, and was prosecuted for causing the deceased’s death by careless driving. She pleaded guilty, was given a suspended prison sentence and was disqualified from driving for 12 months.
The deceased’s will left his residuary estate to the claimant. In the event that the claimant predeceased the deceased, the will provided for legacies to the defendants. The deceased was also joint tenant...
Ali v Taj [2020] WTLR 391
Summer 2020 #179The respondents were the residuary beneficiaries of the estate of Mohammed Taj; the appellant was the deceased’s younger brother and one of his two executors. The deceased died on 1 September 2007, and probate was granted on 7 May 2008 to the appellant and his co-executor. Various issues arose in the course of administering the estate, and in the eleven years following the grant the executors had not provided an inventory of the estate’s assets nor an account of their administration.
The respondents issued a summons for the executors to exhibit on oath an inventory and account of ...
A v B & ors [2020] WTLR 385
Summer 2020 #179The plaintiff trustees of a discretionary trust governed by Cayman law sought a declaration concerning the power of variation conferred by the trust instrument, and which was in the following terms:
‘The Trustees may, with the consent of the Settlor during his lifetime, at any time and from time to time by instrument in writing vary, add to, revise or modify, the terms and conditions of this Settlement except that no such amendment may be made which either changes any Beneficiary hereunder or alters that [sic] terms of clause (I) of subsection 3.4 of this Settlement.’
The s...
Watson v Kea Investments Ltd [2020] WTLR 351
Spring 2020 #178In 2012, the claimant trustee (K) invested £129m into a joint venture (Spartan), which was alleged have been procured by the deceit of Mr Watson. The action between K and Spartan was settled, with certain agreements between Spartan and K set aside. As a result, K was entitled to treat Spartan as constructive trustee of £129m, which also gave rise to a right to interest under the equitable jurisdiction of the Court, or s35A Senior Courts Act 1981. K continued its claim against Mr Watson, who was found liable to pay equitable compensation to K of all sums which were due from Spartan, but w...
Todd v Parsons & ors [2020] WTLR 305
Spring 2020 #178T died in 2009, aged 96 years, leaving two adult children, her son, who was the claimant (C), and her daughter, who was the third defendant (D3). By a will document dated 25 September 2008, T appointed the first defendant (D1) and the second defendant (D2) as her executors. D1 was the daughter of D3 and T’s only grandchild. D2 was the solicitor who drafted the will document. Both remained neutral in the proceedings.
In June 2017, C brought a claim for probate in solemn form of the will document and for an order removing D1 and D2 as executors and appointing an independent personal...