Rawstron & anr (executrices of the estate of Lucian Freud) v Freud [2014] EWHC 2577 (Ch)
October 2014 #143Lucian Freud (the deceased) achieved international recognition as an outstanding painter and draughtsman, and he acquired considerable wealth over the course of his long and successful life. His final will was dated 10 May 2006 (the 2006 will), superseding his previous will of 25 June 2004 (the 2004 will). Both wills were professionally drafted. His residuary estate, after payment of legacies and inheritance tax, was estimated at around £42m.
The claim was brought by the claimants under CPR Part 8 in their capacity as executrices of the deceased’s final will. The first cl...
Hart & anr v Burbidge & ors [2014] EWCA Civ 992 On appeal from: [2013] EWHC 1628 (Ch)
October 2014 #143and
1. ARTHUR KENNETH GERALD SAMWAYS
2. GRAHAM DOUGLAS SAMWAYS
3. CHRISTINE MARGARET GARLINGE
4. PETER KENNETH HART
5. LEWIS ROGER HART
6. GEMMA LOUISE HART
v
1. SUSAN ANNE BURBIDGE
2. BRIAN JEFFERY BURBIDGE
3. KENNETH CHARLES HART
4. PAUL ROGER HART
The appellants appealed a decision in two actions that had been tried together ...
Re AB (Revocation of Enduring Power of Attorney) [2014] EWCOP 12
October 2014 #143AB was born in 1932, resides in a care home and has dementia. In June 2007 she signed an EPA appointing her nephews MD and WD to be her attorneys on a joint and several basis. In September 2007 the EPA was registered.
In March 2007 MD and WD bought a property for AB to live in. They charged her rent for the six months that she lived there and she also paid the refurbishment costs of the work carried out by MD.
In January 2013 Brent Council wrote to the OPG expressing concerns about arrears of £23,000 in care home fees.
An investigation by the OPG showed that in Fe...
Bayley & ors v SG Associates & ors [2014] EWHC 782 (Ch)
October 2014 #143Mr John Bayley settled property on trust on 17 November 1983. He died in 1987. The trust was established with the assistance of the settlor’s longstanding business associate and friend, Mr Derek Gray, who provided various services to the trust through the first defendant, SG Associates (SGA), a company of which he was a director. From 1998, Mr Gray was also director of a US company known as Clean Diesel Technologies (CDT), which developed, designed, marketed and licensed technologies and solutions for the reduction of emissions from combustion engines. He was also a director of SGA...
Re Dion Investments Pty Ltd [2013] NSWSC 1941
October 2014 #143The Dion Family Trust was set up by deed as a discretionary trust in Papua New Guinea in August 1973 when Papua New Guinea was an external territory of Australia. It contains the following clause:
’15 [all potential beneficiaries] or any of them may at any time with or without the consent of the Trustee by deed revoke all or any of the trusts hereby declared and declare other trusts of the settled property and income derived therefrom in favour of such person or persons the said [potential beneficiaries] or any of them shall in their absolute discretion determine with or wi...
Giles v Royal National Institute for the Blind & Ors [2014] EWHC 1373 (Ch)
October 2014 #143The claimant claimed as the administratrix of the estate of Ellen Bolton (Ellen) for rectification of a deed of variation by which she had purported to vary the will of Hilda Bolton (Hilda).
Hilda had died on 6 February 2006. Her sister, Ellen, died on 11 September 2007. By her last will Hilda had benefited Ellen in two respects: as the beneficiary of a specific devise of a particular freehold property (the property) at clause 2(a) of the will and also as the sole residuary beneficiary under clause 5 of the will. As Ellen survived Hilda these gifts took effect. The gifts were char...
Hart & anr v Burbidge & anr
October 2014 #143In 2006 the deceased made a will directing a sale of two properties, No 7 and No 43 (the properties), with the proceeds to be shared between her sons (the Harts). On the same date the deceased gave another property, Unit 15, to her daughter and son-in-law, Mr and Mrs Burbidge, and also released them from a debt of £44,000. In 2007 the deceased made a further will leaving No 7 to the Harts and No 43 to her siblings and any grandchildren surviving her with the residue to be divided equally amongst her children.
Having decided to live with the Burbidges, the deceased transferred her...
Kaur v Dhaliwal & anr [2014] EWHC 1991 (Ch)
October 2014 #143The claimant had made an application under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (Act) for provision out of the estate of Harcharan Singh Dhaliwal (deceased) who died on 7 June 2009. The question had arisen, as a preliminary issue, whether the claimant was a person who ‘during the whole of the period of two years immediately before the date when the deceased died… was living (a) in the same household as the deceased, and (b) as the… wife of the deceased’ within the meaning of s1(1A) of the Act. The claimant and the deceased ...
Kershaw v Roberts & anr [2014] EWHC 1037 (Ch)
October 2014 #143This hearing was an appeal from a decision of His Honr Judge Philip in which that judge found that an earlier hearing in the matter had not been a case management conference (CMC) and that therefore the respondent defendants were under no obligation to file and serve a costs budget seven days in advance of it. The claimant had contended that the earlier hearing had been a CMC and renewed that submission in the current hearing. The claimant’s submissions raised general issues as to whether the first hearing in a Part 8 claim, alternatively the first directions hearing, in such a cla...
King v Dubrey & ors [2014] EWCH 2083 (Ch)
October 2014 #143The deceased, June Fairbrother, (D), a retired policewoman, made a will in March 1998 leaving legacies to friends and family, the 3rd to 14th defendants ,the executors and legatees and the residue to the 15th to 21st defendants, animal charities (the charities). In June 2007 D’s nephew, Mr King, the claimant (C) had a conversation with her. She was increasingly elderly and frightened of going into a home, and he agreed to move in with her to look after her. He had spent some time in prison as a result of an offence under the Companies Act and was living in the property of a busi...