The appellant (Mr Bingham), a sole practitioner, was a solicitor practising under the style of Bingham & Co. His practice, predominantly based on property transactions, prospered to such an extent that Mr Bingham was able to amass substantial sums of personal funds, which he deposited in a number of bank and building society accounts. These were subsequently consolidated in a money market account held jointly with his wife, to which were later added their children. Mr Bingham believed that the beneficial ownership of the funds could be changed by making them account holders and signa...
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...
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