Oakhurst & ors v Blackstar (Isle of Man) Ltd & anr [2012] EWHC 1131 (Ch)
September 2012 #122The first claimant (the principal employer) set up employee retirement benefit schemes (ERBS) for three of its directors, the second to fourth claimants on 23 November 2007, under which the directors were each members of their own schemes. The first defendant, Blackstar (Isle of Man) Ltd (Blackstar) was the trustee for all three schemes. Under the ERBSs, the trustees were given an express power that they could exercise by lending all of the trust fund to the member or other beneficiary on uncommercial terms, and in each case Blackstar received some £2m from the principal employer and it ...
Phillipe & ors v Cameron & ors [2012] EWHC 1040 (Ch)
September 2012 #122The claimants were the trustees of the St Andrew’s (Cheam) Lawn Tennis Club Trust (the trustees). The trustees sought declarations as to the beneficial ownership of land occupied by the St Andrew’s (Cheam) Lawn Tennis Club (the club) since 1938 (the land).
The church now known as St Andrew’s United Reformed Church Cheam (the church) was originally founded in the 1920s. From the church’s inception many of its members played tennis together and in 1930 they established a tennis club which was to become the club. The club’s first general meeting was held...
Bahouse & anr v Negus [2008] EWCA Civ 1002
September 2012 #122Henry Bahouse (D) died on 27 March 2005 leaving an estate of approximately £2.2m in including a flat worth approximately £400,000. He had been married twice before and there was a son of his first marriage, Gordon (G), the residuary legatee under D’s will of 24 January 1996 and one of the executors seeking permission to appeal the decision of the lower court. Cyd Negus (C) was D’s cohabitee. No provision was made for her in the will and she made various claims against the estate. In the High Court she was awarded maintenance under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act...
Charity Commission v RNIB 226227
September 2012 #122The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) asked the Charity Commission for England and Wales (Commission) in May 2009 to authorise the payment of the RNIB’s Chair at the rate of £24,000 per annum for two days’ work per week. Authority was sought with effect from the date the chair was due to take office (23 July 2009), for his full three-year term of office. Previous authority had been given by the Commission to the RNIB to pay reasonable remuneration to four trustees in 2006 and to a fifth in 2007.
A week before the chair took office, some of the trustees r...
Drakeford v Cotton & anr [2012] EWHC 1414 (Ch)
September 2012 #122Ernest Cotton (Mr Cotton) and Mary Cotton (Mrs Cotton) won about £107,000 on the National Lottery and made mirror image wills on 16 May 1997 that provided for the survivor to take the entire estate of the first to die and, on the death of the survivor, for it to pass equally to their three children, who were the claimant and defendants. When Mr Cotton died on 7 February 2008 there were two jointly-held accounts (respectively a deposit and current account) with the Coventry Building Society containing £49,186.98 and £2,622.08 (Accounts). Both were thenceforth owned legally and beneficiall...
Re Foote Estate [2011] ABCA 1
September 2012 #122Eldon Foote, the deceased (D) was born in Alberta and lived there for the first 43 years of his life. He married and had five children there. When he died in 2004, his estate was worth approximately $130m. He also controlled a charitable foundation worth approximately $80m and had other assets worth approximately $10m. The bulk of his assets were held through corporations in the British Virgin Islands, and he had some investments and investment properties in Norfolk Island and a cabin in Alberta. D had left Alberta in 1967 to start his business in Australia and, over the next three years...
Independent Trustee Services Ltd v GP Noble Trustees Ltd & ors [2012] EWCA Civ 195
September 2012 #122Anthony Morris (Mr Morris) orchestrated a series of frauds between August 2007 and April 2008 by which £52m was misappropriated from various occupational pension schemes by their trustees, GP Noble Trustees Ltd and BDC Trustees Ltd. The appellant was Independent Trustee Services Ltd (ITS), which had been appointed as trustee of the 1653 pension schemes by the Pensions Regulator in July 2008. Mr Morris was found liable in dishonest assistance for £52m and in knowing receipt for £4.89m by Peter Smith J in July 2010 ([2010] EWHC 1653 (Ch)) (the chancery action).
Mr Morris had married...
Re JC 11757467
September 2012 #122JC had four biological children: A, B, C and D. A was born in 1942 to a 15-year old mother. He was subsequently fostered, but throughout his life always understood JC to be his father and in the forty years preceding trial had worked and been in regular contact with him. JC denied parentage of A, but paternity was conclusively established by a court authorised DNA test. B and C were born in wedlock, in 1953 and 1955 respectively. However, they first had contact with their father in or around 2006/7. Their relationships remained strained, C in particular refusing to attend the hearing as ...
North Shore Ventures Ltd v Anstead Holdings Inc [2012] EWCA Civ 11
September 2012 #122The substantive action concerned a written agreement between North Shore Ventures Limited (North Shore) and Anstead Holdings Inc (Anstead) made in March 2003 (the agreement). In 2008 Anstead’s assets were transferred into trusts of which Mr Fomichev and Mr Peganov (the appellants) and their family members were discretionary beneficiaries (the trusts). On 20 August 2008 North Shore issued a claim against Anstead and the appellants for monies owing under the agreement. On 21 June 2010, Newey J gave judgment against the appellants for sums in excess of $50m. On 9 March 2011, the Court...