Price v Saundry & anr [2020] WTLR 233
Spring 2020 #178By Declaration of Trust dated 6 July 2009 made between the Appellant and the First Respondent’s husband the latter declared that he held the properties set out in the schedule and the net proceeds of sale and the net income until sale upon trust for the parties thereto as tenants in common in equal shares. The First Respondent became a trustee as a result of being her husband’s sole personal representative. Subsequently she appointed her brother as an additional trustee and, after his death, his executrix was substituted as a party. The Appellant brought a claim seeking an order removing...
Lomax v Lomax [2020] WTLR 191
Spring 2020 #178The claimant made an application under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 as a widow of the deceased. She wanted the parties to engage in Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE), but the defendant refused to do so. The claimant asked the court to order an ENE under CPR r3.1(2)(m).
At first instance, Parker J made it clear that she believed that an ENE would be of benefit to the parties, but declined to order this. The claimant appealed against the decision not to order an ENE.
The single issue on appeal was whether a court can order an ENE in cir...
Cowan v Foreman & ors [2019] WTLR 707
Autumn 2019 #176The appellant appealed from an order of Mostyn J by which he refused her permission pursuant to s4 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (the 1975 Act) to bring an application out of time for reasonable financial provision out of the estate of her late husband (the deceased), who had died in 2016 leaving an estate of £29m. By his will the deceased left all his business assets qualifying for 100% business property relief on a discretionary trust (the business property trust) for a class of beneficiaries (the discretionary beneficiarie...
Group Seven Ltd & anr v Notable Services LLP & anr [2019] WTLR 803
Autumn 2019 #176These appeals arose from the a ‘brazen fraud’ by which Allseas Group SA was defrauded of €100 million. After the fraud took place, there was an attempt to launder the proceeds through the client account of a London firm of solicitors, Notable Services LLP, whose partners included Mr Landman. Police intervention secured the return of €88 million – the present proceedings concerned attempts to recover the remainder of this sum from Notable, Mr Landman, Mr Louanjli (a bank employee who provided information to Notable) and LLB Verwaltung, the bank who employed him (”the Bank”).
In add...
MN v OP & ors [2019] WTLR 941
Autumn 2019 #176In a claim for the approval of an arrangement varying a trust under the Variation of Trusts Act 1958 (the 1958 Act), an application was made for an anonymity order restricting the naming of the parties and access to the court file relating to the claim and the publication of certain information. The judge dismissed the application but gave permission for an appeal. The appellant, who brought the claim, was settlor of a settlement (the settlement), which comprised very valuable assets divided into several funds, some of which were held on discretionary trusts and others ...
First City Monument Bank plc v Zumax Nigeria Ltd [2019] WTLR 511
Summer 2019 #175The claimant held accounts in Nigeria with IMB International Bank, whose rights and obligations had been inherited by the defendant through a series of mergers. IMB itself held ‘correspondent’ accounts with a London bank. The claimant often received funds to an Isle of Man nominee which held a bank account in London.
In a series of 10 transfers between 2000 and 2002, the claimant’s nominee gave instructions to its bank to transfer sums to one of IMB’s accounts variously identifying the ‘beneficiary’ as IMB but in eight cases ‘for further credit to’ the claimant. Sums totalling $3,...
HMRC v Parry & ors [2019] WTLR 45
Spring 2019 #174Shortly before her death the director of a company (S) transferred the funds from a company pension policy acquired by her on her divorce from her ex-husband and known as a s32 buyout policy (the s32 policy) to a personal pension policy (PPP) issued by AXA. At the same time S nominated her two sons as her beneficiaries in relation to the death benefit payable under the PPP. If the s32 pension had remained in the company scheme, on her death a sum would have been payable to S’s estate which would have been chargeable to IHT. S’s sons were the residuary beneficia...
Martin v Martin [2019] WTLR 181
Spring 2019 #174A company was incorporated by the husband and a friend in 1978 as equal shareholders. The husband and wife started living together in 1986, and married in 1989. At this point, the husband acquired 99% of the shares and the wife 1%. They separated in 2015.
On a wife’s application for a financial remedy order, the judge found that the capital assets were £182m in properties and pension funds, and 100% of the shares in a private company, which he valued at £221m before tax and costs of sale. He found that 80% of the company’s value was marital property, by applying a straight-line ap...
Moore v Moore & anr [2019] WTLR 233
Spring 2019 #174In 1966 the claimant and his brother became the joint owners of a substantial farm in Wiltshire and began farming in partnership. The claimant’s son, the defendant, worked on the farm from childhood and became a salaried partner in 1998.
The brother retired from the partnership in 2008 and gave his partnership share to the defendant in return for a payment of £500,000 from the partnership. The claimant and the defendant also incorporated a company, of which the defendant was 51% shareholder, and to which various partnership assets were transferred in 2010.
Relations between...