Creasey & anr v Sole & ors [2013] EWHC 1410 (Ch)
July/August 2013 #131The claimants were the executors of the late Constance Jenkins (M), and, by representation, the executors of the late Kenneth Jenkins (F). F died on 21 October 1995 and M died on 15 January 2005. The defendants, F and M’s children, disputed the devolution of their parents’ estates and the court’s direction was sought.
F and M had owned a farmhouse and land extending to some 210 acres on the Isle of Wight as beneficial tenants in common (Ashey). F and M owned other land, in some cases jointly and in others cases individually. One such further holding consisted of 26 acres, known as...
Futter & anr v HMRC; Pitt & anr v HMRC [2013] WTLR 977
July/August 2013 #131The first appeal concerned two settlements, made with non-resident trustees, by Mr Futter. Considerable ‘stockpiled’ gains were rolled up while the trusts were non-resident and, in exercise of the powers conferred by the trusts, new resident trustees were appointed and capital was distributed to Mr Futter and his children in the mistaken belief that the ‘stockpiled’ gains, which would be attributed to them, would be absorbed by allowable losses that had been realised, so that no liability to capital gains tax would arise. In advising as to the effect of s87 of the Taxation a...
HMRCC v Hanson [2013] UKUT 0224 (TCC)
July/August 2013 #131Mr Hanson (the respondent) is the trustee for a trust created in 1957 by his grandfather, which gave his father Joseph Hanson (the deceased) a life interest. The trust consisted of a house in Milton Keynes.
The deceased lived in the house until 1978 and when he moved out the respondent moved in. There was no change in ownership of the property. The Hansons are a farming family and at the time of his father’s death the respondent owned and farmed 128 acres of land nearby, he rented a further 28 acres and farmed an additional 67 acres co-owned by him and the deceased and ran t...
Re Portland Place (Historic House) Ltd [2012] EWHC 4199 (Ch)
July/August 2013 #131Mr Davenport the applicant (A) applied to the Companies Court pursuant to ss1 and 17 of company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 for permission to give instructions to solicitors acting on behalf of Portland Place (Historic House) Ltd, (the company), a company incorporated in Nevis in the West Indies in relation to litigation brought against that company. A applied from prison where he is serving sentence for fraud. In September 2011 he had been disqualified for ten years from being a director of a company or in any way being concerned in its management with...
The Trustees of David Zetland Settlement v HMRCC [2013] UKFTT 284
July/August 2013 #131The appellant trustees appealed from a notice of determination dated 16 February 2010 whereby HMRC refused inheritance tax business property relief on the basis that immediately before the ten-year anniversary on 22 September 2007, none of the property comprised in the settlement was relevant business property for the purposes of s104 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA). HMRC contended that the business was excluded under s105(3) IHTA in that it consisted ‘mainly of… making or holding investments’.
The principal asset of the settleme...
Vallee v Birchwood [2013] EWHC 1449 (Ch)
July/August 2013 #131On 6 August 2003, Cheryle Vallee (the claimant/respondent) visited her 93-year-old father Wlodzimierz Bogusz at his home. Ms Vallee, who lived abroad, told her father that she planned to visit next at Christmas. He replied that he might not be alive by then as he did not expect to live much longer. He handed over the deeds for his unregistered property, a house key, his war medals and a photograph album. The main asset of the estate was his property.
In December 2003 Mr Bogusz died intestate. Ms Vallee had been fostered and then later adopted after her mother and father’s m...
DR v GR & ors [2013] EWHC 1196 (Fam)
July/August 2013 #131A post-nuptial settlement (being a Jersey discretionary trust) was created by a husband and wife in 1986. The trust owns a Liberian company, which in turn owns a UK company that owns two UK companies. The main company assets are two UK retirement villages. The beneficiaries included the husband and wife and two minor children.
During divorce proceedings the wife applied for a variation of the settlement.
Over the course of proceedings the trustees of the Jersey trust and the companies were all joined as parties. In both cases no application was made for joinder and no not...