Continue reading "Fiduciary Duties: Staying virtuous"
The claimants brought a part 8 claim for the determination of three issues in relation to a family trust of land on which was operated a family-run plant nursery business. The nursery business was operated through a limited company which was separately owned from the trust and the company paid no rent to the trust for occupation of the land. All parties to the claim were adult members of the family and comprised all of the existing beneficiaries of the trust. The fourth defendant represented the interests of potential unborn beneficiaries. The relief sought by the claimants was unopposed...
Ernest 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...
At the end of the 1940s, the Savernake Estate, which was the subject of these proceedings, was held by a company owned by the 7th and 8th Marquesses of Ailesbury. Between 1949 and 1951 the company was replaced by a partnership. There was a conveyance executed in 1951 by which the estate was conveyed to the Marquesses on trust for sale as part of their partnership. The partnership property also included the family collection of paintings and other chattels. By 1963, there was an agreement that the partnership would be carried on by the 8th Marquess, who had a 51% share, and the trustees f...