Wills & Trusts Law Reports | March 2014 #137Mr Alfred Rawlings and his wife Maureen Rawlings instructed a solicitor to draft their wills in mirror form. Each spouse intended to leave his or her entire estate to the survivor of them, but provided that, should the other have predeceased or survived them for less than a month, their estates should be left to the appellant, who was not related to them but whom they treated as their son. Mr and Mrs Rawlings’ solicitor attended them on 17 May 1999 to enable a due execution of draft wills containing these provisions. By an oversight, their solicitor gave each spouse the other’s draft wil...
Michael Gould considers the outcome of a Court of Appeal case concerning the benefit and scope of covenants ‘The covenant was aimed at activities on the burdened land as the source of the nuisance, such as fumes or smell or noise from an offensive trade or business, which may spread from and beyond the boundaries …
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | November 2013 #134Doreen Gertrude Leader (the deceased) executed a will leaving the residue of her estate to her three daughters on the following terms:
‘I give my estate (including any property over which I may have general power of appointment or disposition by will) to my trustees upon trust…
(c) subject thereto hold the residue remaining and the income thereof (“my residuary estate”) UPON TRUST for such of them my daughters, the said JACQUELINE ANNE RAINBIRD JANET JONES of… and GWENDOLINE SMITH of… as shall survive me and if more than one in equal shares absolutely.’
J...
Rod Cowper examines recent approaches to the interpretation of guarantees ‘The only practical guidance that can be offered is that those having the benefit of a guarantee of a contract which is to be amended substantively ought to ensure that the guarantor is made aware of and consents expressly to the variations.’ Although judicial piercing …
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Clare Arthurs and Sebastian Kokelaar assess the implications of a recent decision in the Supreme Court The bank’s interpretation was, arguably, commercially implausible, whereas on the claimants’ interpretation the whole of para 2 could be said to be redundant.In Rainy Sky SA v Kookmin Bank [2011] the Supreme Court revisited the principles governing the construction …
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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 …
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Christopher Cant considers a decision providing guidance on the construction of documents registered at HM Land Registry The majority considered that the insertion of a whole clause mistakenly omitted required a rectification order and could not be dealt with as a matter of construction.The recent Court of Appeal decision in Cherry Tree Investments Ltd v …
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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 …
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Paul Pinder examines a Court of Appeal decision on the interpretation of documents held by the Land Registry ‘The publicly available documents held by the Land Registry therefore omitted to state what was owed and did not refer to the extended power of sale.’ In the recent case of Cherry Tree Investments Ltd v Landmain …
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