Re Clarke 10370284
January/February 2013 #126A previous order of the court had invited any parties seeking costs to lodge written submissions. Family members and the professional deputy submitted that their costs should be charged to Mrs Clarke’s estate.
Michael Clarke (the son of Mrs Clarke) wanted this decision postponed and an order for disclosure and for production of further accounts of the deputy and OPG.
Held (allowing the costs to be charged):
(1) There was no basis for departure from the general rule. (2) Michael Clarke’s application was refused. (3) The costs of the other family ...Curati v Perdoni & anr [2012] EWCA Civ 1381
January/February 2013 #126Pierluigi Curati (Mr Curati) had a domicile of origin in Italy. He moved with his wife (Mrs Curati), a British national, to England in 1955. Mr and Mrs Curati ran a family restaurant (inherited from Mrs Curati’s parents) until 1970, when they sold the restaurant and invested the proceeds in real property which added to the property portfolio which they had already started to build up in England. They also held real property in Italy which they rented to third parties. On 18 December 1980, Mr and Mrs Curati made formal mirror wills in England, drawn in English which were limited t...
Helmsman Ltd & anr v Bank of New York Trust Co (Cayman) Ltd [2009] CILR 490
January/February 2013 #126The defendant Bank of New York Trust Co (Cayman) Ltd (BNY Cayman) was sole trustee of the Beverley and Howden Settlements from June 1999 until February 2005 and trustee of the London Settlement from March 2000 until November 2002. The first plaintiff, Helmsman Ltd (H(1)), is a Bermudian company and now the sole trustee of the Beverley and Howden Settlements. The second plaintiff, the Hotham Trustee Co Ltd (H(2)), is an English company and the sole trustee of the London Settlement. The Beverley and Howden Settlements (the UK settlements) provide that the proper law of the settlement is th...
Lawie v Lawie & ors [2012] EWHC 2940 (Ch)
January/February 2013 #126The claimant (SL) sought rectification of a deed of trust that he and his late wife (PL) had executed in 2006.
SL and PL determined, on the advice of Mr Tollins (a financial advisor at the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society (the building society)) that they wanted £100,000 (just under half of their net assets at the time) to be held in a Legal & General portfolio bond, which was to be held on a flexible trust for the benefit of their children and grandchildren. They expressed an intention to be able to alter the class of discretionary objects and the percentage entitl...
Matthews v HMRCC
January/February 2013 #126The late Mrs Matthews (D) invested approximately £95,000 in a Building Society account with her son, the claimant, John Matthews (M) in 1999. The words ‘either signature’ were included in the special instructions for operation of the account. Between 1999 and 19 January 2007 when D died there were no withdrawals from the account and both D and M included half the interest on their tax returns. M claimed that D intended to make an immediate gift of the moneys in the account to him on the date it was opened and that he could have used that money for what ever purpose he wished,...
Pankhania v Chandegra [2012] EWCA Civ 1438
January/February 2013 #126The claimant appealed from the decision of Judge Charles Harris QC to dismiss his claim seeking an order for sale of 7 Cossington Street, Leicester (the property) and the division of the sale proceeds in equal shares between him and the defendant. A declaration had been made by the judge that beneficial ownership of the property was vested solely in the defendant, despite the property having been conveyed into the joint names of the claimant and defendant. A simultaneous express declaration of trust had been made in the transfer declaring that the parties were to hold the property as ten...
Silber v HMRC [2012] UKFTT 700 (TC)
January/February 2013 #126By his will dated 12 May 1997, Martin Moses Menachem Lerner (deceased) divided his net residuary estate into ten equal shares between the appellant as to nine shares and the Chay Charitable Trust (CCT) as to one share. Subsequently, the deceased gifted £60,000 cash to the appellant and transferred in excess of £400,000 worth of quoted shares to the CCT. Following the deceased’s death on 21 October 1999, a disappointed beneficiary under a former will disputed the validity of the last will on the grounds of testamentary incapacity, but this was settled on 22 October 2001 on terms tha...
Singapore Airlines Ltd & anr v Buck Consultants Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1542
January/February 2013 #126Singapore Airlines Ltd (SA) brought proceedings against Buck Consultants Ltd (BC) alleging negligence in the drafting by BC of a revised version of the rules of SA’s pension scheme (scheme). A preliminary issue was tried concerning the meaning of ‘earnings’ for the purposes of the scheme. That preliminary issue had to be resolved for the purposes of SA’s negligence claim against BC. However, BC had also been appointed by the court to represent the interests of the members of the scheme on the preliminary issue.
Four issues were appealed by SA. Only Issue 4 ...
Re the Ta-Ming Wang Trust Cause no. FSD 0089 of 2010
January/February 2013 #126The first plaintiff (TMW) and members of his family are the beneficiaries under the Ta-Ming Wang Trust (the trust). The trust was intended to take advantage of a well-established tax-saving structure under which a foreign national such as TMW immigrating into Canada could obtain a five-year Canadian tax holiday on foreign source income earned by a non-resident company, owned by a non-resident trustee; ie on income by way of dividends paid by the company to the trust during the five-year tax holiday. It was established by a settlement dated 2 May 1996 made between TMW’s mother as settlor ...
Thomas v Jeffery & ors [2012] EWCA Civ 693
January/February 2013 #126The appellant (Richard) had successfully brought an application for reasonable financial provision from the estate of his late father. This had been initially expressed as a family provision and proprietary estoppel claim for some 50% of the deceased’s estate. The proprietary estoppel claim was dropped but the level of provision claimed under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 remained unaltered.
Richard provided little information on his financial position until directed to do so by the recorder at trial. This late disclosure proved the existenc...