Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Winter 2019 #177The first and second claimants had four children, three of whom were the defendants. The third defendant suffered a serious brain injury while playing polo and was left unable to walk unaided. The first and second claimants purchased two contiguous flats in London, one for themselves and the other for the third defendant. They also sought a house in the countryside which would serve both as a retirement home for themselves and as a place for their children and potential future grandchildren to visit, with an area designed to meet the needs of the third defendant. In February 2011 they id...
Laura Abbott reviews recent case law to discern current attitudes towards rectifying a genuine mistake ‘If a trustee takes advice which later proves to be incorrect, Hastings-Bass is unlikely to relieve the trust of the financial consequences, but the broadened rule of mistake may (in some limited cases) serve to do so, depending on the …
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2019 #176The appellant appealed from an order of Mostyn J by which he refused her permission pursuant to s4 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (the 1975 Act) to bring an application out of time for reasonable financial provision out of the estate of her late husband (the deceased), who had died in 2016 leaving an estate of £29m. By his will the deceased left all his business assets qualifying for 100% business property relief on a discretionary trust (the business property trust) for a class of beneficiaries (the discretionary beneficiarie...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Spring 2019 #174The Respondent was originally the sole proprietor of 54 Beaulieu Close, Slough (‘Property’). The Appellant, who was one of her children, managed the family wholesale grocery business. He and his wife moved into the Property to live with the Respondent and spent money on its extension and refurbishment. On 12 October 2012 the Respondent made a new Will gifting a 25% share in the Property to the Appellant and giving him an option to purchase the whole on her death. On the same day the Respondent executed a Declaration of Trust by which she declared that she held the Property as to 75% for ...
Geoffrey Shindler argues that HMRC should be as honest about errors as the rest of society is encouraged to be ‘I hope that when we make mistakes, as we do, we rectify them at our own expense, or the expense of our insurers, without having to incur our clients in any form of proceedings all …
Continue reading "Musings from Manchester: System error"
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Dreamvar has implications not only for conveyancers but for breach of trust claims. Claire-Marie Cornford and Sarah Smith explain ‘The Court of Appeal held that the purchase monies should have remained in the vendor’s solicitor’s client account pending either a genuine completion of the sale or further instructions from the purchaser’s solicitors.’ The recent case …
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The Privy Council has clarified the operation of the rule in Hastings-Bass and how the beneficial ownership of gratuitously transferred assets should be determined. Alan Boyle QC, Richard Wilson QC and Zahler Bryan discuss ‘On the facts of this case MAR’s intention was sufficient, because at the material time MAR was also the governing mind …
Continue reading "Trustees: Relief from flawed decisions"
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The Court of Appeal has indicated the extent to which it will control the exercise of discretion by fiduciaries. Robert Pearce QC discusses ‘The Chancellor’s decisions that the grant was in the best interests of the charity and his direction to L to vote in favour of it were given simultaneously, giving L no opportunity …
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Dreamvar has implications not only for conveyancers but for breach of trust claims against professional trustees. Claire-Marie Cornford and Sarah Smith explain ‘It was accepted that there had been failures in the identification checks undertaken by OWC and MMS; however, in both cases the claims against the vendors’ solicitors were dismissed at first instance on …
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