Marley v Rawlings [2011] WTLR 595 ChD; [2012] WTLR 639 CA; [2014] WTLR 299 SC; [2014] WTLR 1511 SC (costs) – Law Journals

Wills: Trial and error

Alexander Learmonth QC and James McKean report on a case on construction and rectification If the will does not accord with the deceased’s intentions, the wrong is irreversible. Correcting that wrong must be more important than classifying how it came about. There is a will, a company, and two beneficiaries. The will gives 26% of …

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Trusts: Lost in translation

Ross Pizzuti-Davidson looks at interpreting foreign law concepts in English law trusts The court’s judgment in PTNZ in relation to the protector’s role may be a welcome clarification given the surprising lack of authority on the point of whether a protector’s consent rights are joint or review powers. International estate planners can find themselves playing …

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Charitable gifts: Needing a steer

A failure to correctly identify beneficiaries of charitable gifts in a will can result in the failure of that gift. Laura Abbott examines the factors that will be considered The original will file had been destroyed and so there was no evidence of the deceased’s precise instructions. The judge was therefore prepared to look at …

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Wills: A question of construction

Justin Holmes suggests a modern take on decided cases is needed to reflect the intentions of the 21st century testator ‘The 21st century problem which arose for the trustees was that, on the face of the will, the gifts to Enid and Victoria in clause 5 might both have failed, and in that event there …

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Trusts: After Marley

Mike Muston reviews a case which indicates that the courts will take a ‘common sense’ approach to construction and rectification ‘The case of Millar provides further confirmation, following on from the Supreme Court decision in Marley, that courts will approach cases of construction and rectification on a practical and common-sense basis.’ The case of Millar …

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Wills: Can an unsent text message be a valid will?

Sheila Rusike and Jo Summers examine worldwide precedents for accepting unconventional wills ‘The fact that the text message was unsent only demonstrated that the deceased wanted it to be found after his death and not before, further supporting the argument that he wanted it to express his final wishes.’ The Law Commission’s recent consultation paper, …

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Construction: When a conflict of interest leads to court

Sally Goodger discusses a case which debated the circumstances in which a letter of wishes should form part of the will ‘All executors are potentially within the scope of s50 and if circumstances arise which impede the fulfilment of testamentary wishes, the court can exercise its statutory jurisdiction.’ Judge Russen QC handed down his judgment …

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Ademption: Common sense prevails

Christopher McNall sets out the lessons from a rare case of ademption ‘Ademption is a process whereby specific testamentary gifts fail because the subject matter of the gift has ceased to be part of the testatrix‘s property at the time of their death.‘ The decision of Norris J, sitting in Manchester as the Vice-Chancellor of …

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Law Reform: Will-making for the modern age

Jo Summers reviews the Law Commission’s will consultation from the point of view of the practitioner ‘Perhaps the most important part of the consultation relates to the question of mental capacity. The paper notes that the legal test for testamentary capacity comes from the case of Banks v Goodfellow which is hardly recent.’ On 13 …

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Wills: Flexible interpretation

Fiona Campbell-White and Henrietta Watson discuss the current approach of the courts to the construction and rectification of wills ‘When interpreting a contract, the aim is to identify the intention of the party or parties to the document by interpreting the words used in their documentary, factual and commercial context without reference to any subjective …

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