Mussell v Patience [2018] WTLR 579
Summer 2018 #172The judgment in this matter focused on the correct test that the court should apply when deciding whether to strike an entry from an account.
The claimant executors sought:
(1) a declaration that final estate accounts were in order; and
(2) directions to administer the estate accordingly.
The defendants raised objections to the accounts prepared by the executors, and in particular objected to 26 entries relating to legal services. The defendants asserted that, as beneficiaries, they had a right to assess whether such legal charges were re...
Purvis v Purvis [2018] WTLR 585
Summer 2018 #172The claimant, who was born in 1934, left all financial matters to her husband until his death in 2005. He had made ample provision for her, with an annual income of about £100,000. She lived in a large house, in Northumberland, which for inheritance tax planning reasons she transferred to her son, the defendant, in 2006. As she continued to live in the house, to comply with the reservation of benefit rules she paid her son a monthly rent of £2,500. The claimant’s health began to deteriorate in 2011, subsequently suffering a stroke which left her with hemiplegia. By 2013, as a conseq...
R (on the application of Conway) v The Secretary of State for Justice [2018] WTLR 597
Summer 2018 #172The Appellant, Mr Conway, suffered from terminal motor neurone disease. He sought a declaration under s4 of the Human Rights Act 1998 that s2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961, which makes assisted suicide a criminal offence, disproportionate interferes with his right to respect for his private life under Art8 of the ECHR.
At first instance, Mr Conway put forward four main arguments:
1. The ‘blanket ban’ on the provision of assistance for suicide constituted an interference with his Art8(1) rights in a way which is disproportionate and incompatible with Art8(2).
2. Mr Conwa...
Shiner v The Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs [2018] WTLR 649
Summer 2018 #172Facts
DS and IS were at all material times resident in the UK for tax purposes and were beneficially entitled to the income from MOH, an English property development company of which they were the shareholders and directors. On advice, they used a tax avoidance scheme that took advantage of the provisions of the 1955 UK-Isle of Man double tax treaty (DTT). These provisions exempted the industrial or commercial profits of an Isle of Man (IOM) enterprise, which could include a partnership, from UK tax unless it was engaged in trade or business in the UK through a permanent establis...
South Downs Trustees Ltd v GH [2018] WTLR 673
Summer 2018 #172The claimant was the trustee of an employment benefit trust (the EBT). The trustee had an interest in a company that owned and controlled a business (the utility). The beneficiaries of the EBT were the former and current employees of the utility and other group companies and their dependants. The trustee entered into a sale and purchase agreement for the sale of the EBT’s interest in the company, conditional upon certain relief from the court. Following the sale, there would be a distribution of the trust property amongst various beneficiaries.
Held
The following orders wer...
TH v JH [2018] WTLR 693
Summer 2018 #172The applicant, TH, the donee of an enduring power of attorney for the property and affairs of his father, HH, applied for retrospective approval of payments and gifts made between 2011 and 2017 in the sums of £88,366 in favour of the applicant and his family, and £15,196 in favour of his brother JH, the first respondent, and his family. JH opposed approval of all sums save for £30,000.
HH lacked capacity and was unable to participate in any meaningful way in decisions about his welfare or property or affairs. He required constant care from August 2010. TH provided sporadic ...
X v Y [2018] WTLR 719
Summer 2018 #172The Trustee of a Cayman Islands trust (“the A Trust”) applied for Beddoe relief seeking directions permitting it to defend English proceedings, alleging misrepresentation and deceit, to which it had been joined as a defendant; and, in so doing, permitting it to borrow funds from another trust (“the C Trust”) to discharge the costs of defending the action, such costs to be ultimately reimbursed from the A Trust’s assets. An adverse judgement in the English proceedings in favour of the plaintiffs in the English proceedings (“Z”) would likely result in the complete loss of the A Trust’s onl...
Anderson v Spencer [2018] WTLR 1
Spring 2018 #171The mother and executor (V) of the deceased appealed against an order that a DNA sample from the deceased, held by a hospital, be tested against the respondent (D), to determine whether he was the son of the deceased. The deceased had suffered from an hereditary form of bowel cancer called Lynch Syndrome, and so D wanted to discover if he was at risk of this condition developing. V refused consent. D applied for a declaration of paternity under s55A Family Law Act 1986, in the context of which he sought an order for testing of the DNA sample collected by the hospital during the deceased’...
Constandas v Lysandrou & ors [2018] WTLR 19
Spring 2018 #171The claimant claimed a beneficial interest in a residential property registered in the joint names of the first and second defendants, his sister and brother-in-law respectively, on the basis that in 1959 he paid £600 towards the purchase price. By the time the matter came to trial in October 2015 both first and second defendants had lost capacity.
Giving judgment at first instance, HHJ Faber found both claimant and defendant witnesses to be unreliable. She concluded that on the evidence available she could not arrive at any finding as to who had made the £600 downpayment in 1959,...
Creggy v Barnett & anr [2018] WTLR 35
Spring 2018 #171In 1998 the appellant solicitor transferred $1.2m without his clients’ knowledge and authority and in breach of fiduciary duty to the respondents. Proceedings were issued in 2012. The appellant argued the claim was statute-barred pursuant to s21(3) Limitation Act 1980. The respondents relied upon a letter written by the appellant in 2006 as constituting an acknowledgement of the claim for the purposes of s29(5) of the Act, which provides:
‘where any right of action has accrued to recover… any debt or other liquidated pecuniary claim… and the person liable or accountable for the...