Wills: Crossing a line

Brendan Cotter considers how likely a claim against a testamentary predator is to succeed ‘The classic sign of undue influence is the main beneficiary being active in the preparation of a will in which they take a substantial benefit.’As Hilaire Belloc wrote in Dedicatory Ode 1910: ‘The question’s very much too wide, and much too …
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Undue Influence: Follow your nose

Amanda Noyce examines Hart v Burbidge [2014] and its lessons on the presumption of undue influence and lifetime gifts ‘Although the law of undue influence in relation to probate cases is a difficult hurdle to overcome, the law relating to lifetime gifts, where the donor may (or may not) now happen to be dead, may …
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Schomberg & ors v Taylor & ors [2013] EWHC 2269 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | October 2013 #133

The testatrix (W) was the second wife of the late Brian Taylor (H) and had two step sons, David (D) and Paul (P), the first and second defendants. She had a sister, Penny, who married the eighth defendant, Mr Bruce Peskin (B), and who had three children, the fifth to seventh defendants, Cindy, Andrew and Dominic (the 2008 beneficiaries). W and H visited Penny and B, until a few years before they died. They stopped doing so after B, who was in financial difficulties, repeatedly pressurised them to obtain financial assistance in relation to a property development and sale. As a result of t...

Hubbard & anr v Scott & ors [2011] EWHC 2750 (Ch)

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2012 #116

The claimants were default beneficiaries who, in the event, stood to benefit under the terms of the will of Albert Wiseman (testator) dated 25 November 1997. They and their mother, who were longstanding friends of the testator, visited him at his home after the death of his wife. However, their visits tailed off during the last years of his life and, at some stage after May 2006, a neighbour introduced the testator, then aged 84, to the third defendant who initially worked for him as a cleaner. There was a dispute of fact as to whether this occurred over three years or under three months...