Hutchings v HMRC [2015] UKFTT 0009 (TC) On appeal from: TC/2013/00644
October 2015 # 153Robert James Hutchings (‘deceased’) owned a farm in West Sussex, from which he operated a number of businesses, valued at his death at about £3m. He had an offshore bank account with Julius Bär in Switzerland and, approximately six months before his death, authorised a transfer of the balance to the appellant. The sum transferred was £443,669.00. The appellant was also principal beneficiary under the will of the deceased, who died on 14 October 2009. The executors, who were a solicitor and a land agent, met with members of the family on 29 October 2009 during the course of wh...
Ilott v Mitson [2015] EWCA Civ 797
October 2015 # 153The 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 three months before she was born. Fol...
MF Global UK [2014] EWHC 2222 (Ch)
October 2015 # 153MFGUK was part of the MF Global group which carried on business as broker-dealers in financial markets throughout the world. The group’s principal operations in London were carried on by MFGUK. It and other companies in the group entered insolvency proceedings in the United States and England on 31 October 2011. Administrators were appointed under the Investment Bank Special Administration Regulations 2011. MFGUM held funds in two different capacities – money for clients as trustee of the client money trust, and money beneficially on its own account. On their appointment, the admin...
Public Guardian v CT & EY [2014] EWCOP 51
October 2015 # 153CT was born in 1929. He has a wife and two children: a son and a daughter (EY).
On 19 May 2013, CT suffered a stroke, which resulted in left hemiplegia and impaired vision. He was admitted to hospital where he was diagnosed as having vascular dementia.His stroke precipitated a rift within his family, with CT and his daughter aligned on one side and his wife and son on the other.
On 18 June 2013, CT executed a lasting power of attorney (LPA) for property and affairs appointing EY as his attorney and another person as a replacement attorney and named nobody to be given notice...
Scott v HMRC [2015] UKFTT 0266 (TC)
October 2015 # 153This appeal related to an inheritance tax notice of determination dated 22 May 2013 in respect of the estate of Dr Olive Scott (Olive) who died on 4 March 2007. Olive was predeceased by her husband Professor James Scott (James). The appellant, Malcolm Scott (Malcolm), was her surviving son and co-executor. The other executor had been Olive’s son Alistair Scott (Alistair), who died on 7 November 2009. There had been a dispute between Alistair and Malcolm as to the correct inheritance tax position in relation to certain paintings, and this had led to their filing separate IHT400 acco...
WA v The Executors of the estate [2015] EWHC 2233 (Fam)
October 2015 # 153Having entered into a pre-nuptial agreement, WA (‘the wife’) married HA (‘the husband’) in 1997. The wife was an heiress and the husband brought modest assets of his own to the marriage. They kept their finances separate. The couple and their three children lived on a very large estate (‘the Z estate’) during the marriage and restored it using the wife’s finances.
The marriage broke down in 2014. Both the wife and husband instructed expert family lawyers which supported the brokerage of an agreement. Following disclosure of their respective gross and net incomes, it was agreed tha...
King v The Chiltern Dog Rescue & anr [2015] EWCA Civ 581
September 2015 #152June Margaret Fairbrother (deceased) lived at 12 Kingcroft Road, Harpenden (property) with a number of cats and dogs, of which she was very fond, as she had no children. It was common knowledge within her family that she intended to leave her estate to animal charities which she supported. By a will dated 20 March 1998 (last will) the deceased left her residuary estate to seven such charities (charities). The claimant, who was a nephew, came to live with the deceased, when she was 78 years old, in the summer of 2007. The arrangement was that he would care for his aunt in return for a hom...
Reading & anr v Reading & ors [2015] EWHC 946 (CH)
September 2015 #152John Reading died on 6 July 2005. He left a will dated 30 January 2004. He was survived by his wife, Janet; his two children, Stuart and Sally; and his three stepchildren, Neil, Ruth and Robin Sedgwick.
Under the will, Mrs Reading and Richard Flack were appointed trustees of a nil-rate band discretionary trust. The clauses of the will setting out the trusts of the nil-rate band trust included the testator’s ‘issue’ in the beneficial class. There was provision for such issue to be born at the testator’s death or thereafter during the trust period. Mrs Reading and Mr Flack brought a...
Seals & anr v Williams [2015] EWHC 1829 (Ch)
September 2015 #152The claimants had brought proceedings under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 for reasonable financial provision out of the estate of their late father, Arnold Seal. The sole executrix and beneficiary of the estate was the defendant. Related proceedings had generated considerable acrimony with the result that the parties’ positions were in danger of becoming entrenched. An attempt at mediation had largely stalled and the legal representatives of the parties proposed as a way forward that the court undertake an early neutral evaluation of the case.
<...Sharp v Hutchins [2015] EWHC 1240 (Ch)
September 2015 #152Mr Butcher was born on 4 October 1939. He lived alone in a bungalow at 42 Russell Road, Enfield, London. He had no surviving parents and no children. He was close to his only sibling, Yvonne Butcher, with whom he lived. She died in 2002. Mr Butcher died on 5 May 2013 aged 73. He left a net estate worth £482,295.00. He was in good physical and mental health at the time of his death.
It was likely that in 1991 Mr Butcher had made a will which left his estate to Yvonne. In 2003, he made a new will following her death (‘the 2003 will’). He did so without the involvement of any profess...