Wills & Trusts Law Reports | June 2013 #130The appellants appealed from a first instance decision by Mr Recorder Chapman QC on 15 May 2012, which refused their application for an order for rectification of a conveyance that was executed on behalf of their mother (Mrs Day) by her solicitor (Mr Froud) who was acting as her attorney. The conveyance was dated 6 June 1985. The conveyance had transferred Mrs Day’s home from her sole name into the names or her and her son (the respondent) as beneficial joint tenants. The purpose of the transaction was to enable borrowing to be secured against the property by the respondent. Mrs Day died...
IBM United Kingdom Pensions Trust Ltd v IBM United Kingdom Holdings Ltd updates the position on rectification and pension trusts. Emily Campbell looks at the implications Frequently, parties cannot remember exactly what was said at meetings (unless it found its way into the minutes). The area of rectification is a fertile source of case law. …
Continue reading "Rectification: Examining intention and agreement"
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A recent case has demonstrated that the courts will not construe a contract so as to re-write an unfavourable bargain, as Nikolas Ireland finds out It is clear that, while the court is able to look elsewhere for assistance in the event of ambiguity in a document, and can correct a document where the parties …
Continue reading "Construction Of Contracts: Unfavourable bargains"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | November 2012 #124Bernard Trevor Matthews (testator) died on 25 November 2010 and was survived by the defendants, who were his son, longstanding partner and three adopted children respectively. His estate included a property in France called Villa Bolinha estimated at €15m and property elsewhere estimated at £40m. Although (as he was aware) French law only permitted the testator to leave the second defendant 25% of Villa Bolinha since his children were as of right entitled to 75%, he made a will in France (French will) leaving it to her absolutely. By a letter of wishes, he nevertheless hoped that his chi...
Siobhan Jones and Clare Arthurs assess the lessons to be learned from Scottish Widows v BGC International The courts cannot rewrite contracts simply because the parties failed to consider a particular eventuality or to provide for a particular circumstance, such as a falling rather than rising rental market.There is no such thing as the perfect …
Continue reading "Contract: The only way is up?"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2012 #121H and W married in December 1993 when W was 32 and H was 62. They have three children aged between 17 and 12. H’s first wife died and he had four children, (the elder children) from that marriage – all now adults aged over 35. His second marriage ended in divorce, but he had no continuing financial ties to his second wife. W had not been married before. Her limited assets, £152,000, the net sale proceeds of her flat, had been invested in an investment portfolio supplemented by contributions from H (including a transfer of shares worth £2.477m). H was the chairman of a com...
Kim Teichmann provides an overview of the changes introduced to the 1996 Act and what they mean in practice ‘The big question is what to do if the parties realise that they have entered into a contract that is not compliant with the new Construction Act. It is important for the parties to amend their …
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | December 2011 #115The claimants were trustees of a Jersey property unit trust formed on 17 March 2006 as the vehicle for the purchase of warehouse premises (the property). It was arranged that the vendor of the property would transfer the property to the trustees in return for units, which would then be sold by the vendor to the purchasers. The purchasers were Cantabria Investments Limited (Cantabria) as to 99% of the units and Catalunya Investments Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Cantabria) as to 1%. Cantabria was partly owned by Glenmac Limited (Glenmac). Half of Glenmac’s share capital was ...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | November 2011 #114Mr and Mrs H, their son A and their daughter F were partners in a partnership engaged in farming. The partnership was governed by a partnership deed dated 14 February 1989. One of the assets of the farming partnership was farmland worth approximately £5.5m. Mr and Mrs H ceased to be partners as a result of their loss of mental capacity. They have since died. A ceased to be a partner on his death and therefore F was the only surviving partner.
The partnership capital was originally divided into A and B capital and additional capital. By clause 6 of the partnership deed, A capital h...
The Court of Appeal recently held that a contract will only be corrected if there is an obvious error, as Camilla Askaroff writes ‘The facts in Bashir [2011] were unusual: neither party had inspected the property before the sale. The property was sold at auction. The seller was an executor and the buyer was an …
Continue reading "Sale By Auction: Room for mistake"
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