Continue reading "Court Of Protection: Best interests"
Continue reading "Deathbed Gifts: At a crossroads"
Joyce Smith (Mrs Smith) lived at 49 Home Close, Wolvercote, Oxford (property). She had two daughters, the late Norma Kicks who died in January 2004, and the defendant. After her daughter’s death, Mrs Smith changed her will (will) in February 2008 and gave her entire net estate to the defendant, whom she had appointed sole executrix and trustee, to hold as to 50% for the defendant and 50% equally between Mrs Smith’s four grandchildren. The claimants were the two children of the late Norma Kicks. Mrs Smith’s health began to decline from November 2008. The defendant and her husband, who liv...
Continue reading "LPAs: Unfair care?"
Continue reading "Testamentary Capacity: Banking on Banks v Goodfellow"
OB, who was born in 1916, was a widow with two adult children, AW and DH. She lived in her own home until February 2007 and thereafter with AW. On 15 September 2008, OB executed a lasting power of attorney (LPA) for property affairs, appointing AW and DH jointly and severally as her attorneys. OB’s property was sold on 15 June 2010 and realised net proceeds of £376,200. The LPA was registered by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) on 4 March 2011. Subsequently, DH expressed concerns that long standing ‘pocket money’ payments by OB to her grandchildren had been stopp...
This was an application by a local authority property and affairs deputy seeking a direction whether to authorise a gift MS wished to make. MS was a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints (the church) and wished to donate £6,832 to the church as a tithe. This sum represented 10% of a recent inheritance. RS was MS’s mother and strongly opposed to the donation. MS made his own application seeking declarations that he had capacity to litigate, capacity to make a tithe, capacity to manage his own property and affairs and capacity to execute a LPA for property and affairs.
MS...
This was a contentious probate action against all five of the wills of a schizophrenic testator. While he had benefitted from a stable and conventional childhood, the deceased had sustained serious injuries at the age of nineteen in a serious bicycle accident. He soon after succumbed to the symptoms of severe schizophrenia and logical thought disorder, from which he suffered for the remainder of his lifetime. His modes of living were unconventional. He lived alone on the fringes of society, and despite his considerable wealth, he lived in basic, if not squalid conditions. While it was ac...