Richefond & ors v Dillon & ors [2024] WTLR 253
Spring 2024 #194The first claimant and her co-executors sought to propound a will which was resisted by the first to third defendants. In a previous judgment the Master had determined that the will was valid as to part but the gift of residue to the first claimant failed because the testator did not know and approve of that part in light of his illiteracy and the lack of proper explanation from the will draftsman. The result was that the testator’s home was held on trust for the first claimant’s occupation but the residuary estate passed on the statutory trusts of intestacy between the five defendants.<...
Shah v Commissioners for HMRC [2024] WTLR 265
Spring 2024 #194The executor of the estate of the deceased appealed against a notice of determination under s221 Inheritance Tax Act 1984 that the deceased was domiciled in England and Wales at the time of his death.
The deceased was born in Karachi in what was then British India in 1929. He attended school and university in Karachi in the 1940s. Following partition, in 1947 he moved from Karachi, Pakistan to Gujarat, India to complete his university course. On completion, he moved to Tanzania. In 1954 he moved to the UK to undertake a further degree, returning to Tanzania on completion ...
Thandi v Saggu [2024] WTLR 283
Spring 2024 #194The claimant was the freehold registered proprietor of 7 Parkside Parade, Dartford, Kent (7 Parkside Parade). The defendant was managing director of a construction company called Earlswood Interiors Ltd (Earlswood Interiors). Earlswood Interiors carried out some work on the claimant’s home, a different property. There was an issue with payment for additional works. In April 2018 Earlswood Interiors had been owed £15,000 and had demanded that sum from the claimant. It was found that no unwarranted or illegitimate pressure had been applied to the claimant but she had felt under pressure to...
Winter & anr v Winter & anr [2024] WTLR 327
Spring 2024 #194The court was concerned with the claim of Richard and Adrian Winter to challenge the dispositions made by their father, Albert Winter, in his will dated 30 April 2015 (the 2015 will) which left the residue of his estate to their brother, Philip. The principal asset in Albert’s estate was his share in a market garden business operated by the family for many years, and since 1998 as a partnership between Albert, his late wife Brenda, the claimants and the first defendant. In January 2004 the partnership business was transferred to a company.
The claim was put on two principal bases....
Zedra Fiduciary Services (UK) Ltd v HM Attorney General [2024] WTLR 363
Spring 2024 #194In 1928 Gaspard Farrer established a fund which he intended, in due course, to pay off the National Debt in its entirety, either by itself or in combination with other funds established for the same purpose. The fund was specified to be held until a specified date of application for investment and accumulation, and thereafter ‘to transfer and pay the same to the National Debt Commissioners to be applied by them in reduction of the National Debt’, with a power at any time to determine that ‘part of the National Fund should be forthwith applied in reduction of the National Debt.’ Subsequen...