FL v MJL [2019] WTLR 1171
Winter 2019 #177The Applicant, who was the sole deputy for property and affairs of his brother MJL, made an application for
(i) ratification of small gifts previously made on behalf of MJL and
(ii) authority to make prospective substantial gifts on behalf of MJL.
Both he and three siblings each provided witness statements in support. MJL, who was in his sixties, was unmarried and had no children. He had suffered a cardiac arrest ten years previously and was in a persistent vegetative state. His estate was in excess of £17m (the larger proportion of which was comprised in an investme...
PBC v JMA & ors [2019] WTLR 1193
Winter 2019 #177This was an application by the applicant, PBC, the son and attorney under a lasting power of attorney of the patient, JMA, to authorise various gifts exceeding £7m in value. The purpose of the gifts was to achieve a reduction in inheritance tax (IHT) liability. JMA‘s total assets were estimated to be worth around £18,650,000, held in the form of investments and five paintings.
JMA was 72 years old, suffered from early onset dementia, and required full time care. She was unable to converse and did not recognise PBC or her care staff. It was agreed (and found) that she did not have ...
Payne & anr v Tyler & anr [2019] WTLR 1221
Winter 2019 #177By his will the deceased, who died in November 2010, left his estate as to one half to his widow. She, by a deed of variation complying with s142 Inheritance Tax Act 1984 ( ‘IHTA ‘) ,varied the will in order to settle her half share on a discretionary trust of which the beneficiaries were herself, her children and remoter issue. The trust included a power of appointment in favour of the beneficiaries.
In 2012, the widow was in need of additional income. The trustees proposed making an appointment to the widow giving her an irrevocable life interest in the trust fund. The trustees ...
Rea v Rea & ors [2019] WTLR 1231
Winter 2019 #177The claimant (Rita) was the daughter of Anna Rea (T) who died on 26 July 2016. The defendants (Remo, Nino, and David) were T’s other children. Rita propounded a will dated 7 December 2015 (the 2015 Will). The defendants defended on the basis that T had lacked testamentary capacity to execute the 2015 Will, that she did not know and approve of its contents, and that her execution of it was procured by undue influence and fraudulent calumny. They counterclaimed for probate propounding an earlier will dated 29 May 1986 (the 1986 Will). At trial they had abandoned the challenge based on lack...
Rialas v HMRC [2019] WTLR 1251
Winter 2019 #177During the relevant tax years, R was resident and ordinarily resident, but not domiciled, in the United Kingdom. He was a Cypriot national. He held 50% of the issued shares of ACM, a company incorporated in England and Wales. R worked full time in ACM, which carried on a successful business as a fund manager. C held the other 50% of the shares of ACM.
In order to sell his shares in ACM, R decided to acquire C ‘s shares in ACM using a trust and a company resident outside the UK and borrowed funds, also from an offshore company. R established the R Trust, a discretionary family trus...
Rittson-Thomas & ors v Oxfordshire County Council [2019] WTLR 1285
Winter 2019 #177In 1914 and 1928 Mr Robert Fleming conveyed land to the Defendant for use as part of a school pursuant to the School Sites Act 1841 ‘to be applied as a part of the playground of the said School and for no other purpose whatever ‘. The interest in any land subject to reverter vested in the claimant beneficiaries.
In 2006 the defendant relocated the school to new premises and marketed the old premises for sale. One parcel including part of the site gifted in 1914 was sold in 2007. The defendant maintained that it intended to apply the proceeds of the sale of the former school site t...
Rogge & anr v Rogge & ors [2019] WTLR 1305
Winter 2019 #177The first and second claimants had four children, three of whom were the defendants. The third defendant suffered a serious brain injury while playing polo and was left unable to walk unaided. The first and second claimants purchased two contiguous flats in London, one for themselves and the other for the third defendant. They also sought a house in the countryside which would serve both as a retirement home for themselves and as a place for their children and potential future grandchildren to visit, with an area designed to meet the needs of the third defendant. In February 2011 they id...
Sabados v Facebook Ireland [2019] WTLR 1361
Winter 2019 #177The Claimant, who was a British citizen, was born in Bosnia but had lived in London since 1992. She formed a romantic relationship with a childhood friend called Mirza Krupalija (“Mirza”), following his divorce, which lasted six years until his death in March 2016. Their relationship was for the most part conducted at long distance, although they spent around seven weeks a year together in Bosnia. Mirza used a social media platform operated by the Defendant to post his music, photographs, poems and other personal data. According to the Claimant, some of the data on Mirza‘s Facebook page ...
Scarle v Scarle [2019] WTLR 1369
Winter 2019 #177A husband and his wife were both found dead at their home in October 2016. Both were found to have died of hypothermia, and the wife‘s body in a more advanced state of decomposition. They left jointly-owned property which fell to be distributed differently depending on which of them died first. The parties were the executors of their respective estates.
s184 Law of Property Act 1925 provides as follows: “In all cases where… two or more persons have died in circumstances rendering it uncertain which of them survived the other or others, such deaths shall (subject to any order of th...
The Quentin Skinner 2005 Settlement L & ors v HMRC [2019] WTLR 1389
Winter 2019 #177On 1 December 2015 three settlements (“the Skinner Settlements”) disposed of 55,000 ordinary shares (“the Shares”) in a company (“the Company”) at a gain. Under each Skinner Settlement a member of the Skinner family had been given an interest in possession in the whole of the settled property on 30 July 2015.
Following the disposal of the Shares, the Skinner Settlements and their respective Beneficiaries (“the Beneficiaries”) claimed entrepreneurs ‘ relief (“ER”) under s169J of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 (“TCGA 1992“) applying a reduced rate of CGT (10%) on gains qu...