Re AB (Revocation of Enduring Power of Attorney) [2014] EWCOP 12

October 2014 #143

AB was born in 1932, resides in a care home and has dementia. In June 2007 she signed an EPA appointing her nephews MD and WD to be her attorneys on a joint and several basis. In September 2007 the EPA was registered.

In March 2007 MD and WD bought a property for AB to live in. They charged her rent for the six months that she lived there and she also paid the refurbishment costs of the work carried out by MD.

In January 2013 Brent Council wrote to the OPG expressing concerns about arrears of £23,000 in care home fees.

An investigation by the OPG showed that in Fe...

Re AB [2013] EWHC B39 (COP)

September 2014 #142

AB was a young adult who had suffered a brain injury. She lived with her mother, stepfather and stepbrother. PQ was her father, whose whereabouts were unknown. In the past he had been physically violent and sectioned. AB’s mother had terminated her relationship with PQ and, apart from occasional contact visits, he had not seen his daughter for years. Mother and daughter subsequently moved and established new lives elsewhere. AB was currently intestate and one of her property and affairs’ deputies made an application for the execution of a statutory will to be authorised on he...

Re Gladys Meek; Jones v Parkin & ors [2014] EWCOP 1

September 2014 #142

Mr Jones, the property and affairs deputy for Gladys Meek, asked for the court to authorise a statutory will leaving everything between National Trust for Scotland and a charity connected with the Christadelphian Church. He also asked for an order calling in the £275,000 security bond against her two former deputies, Mrs Miller and Mrs Johnson, and a direction as to whether he should refer the conduct of the two former deputies to the police.

Mrs Meek was born in 1919, widowed in 1961 and predeceased by her only child Barbara in 2010. Both her husband and Barbara died intestate an...

Re MRJ, JT and KT v Suffolk County Council & anr Case no: 12256266

September 2014 #142

MRJ was born in 1932 and formally diagnosed with dementia in March 2009. In December 2011 her psychiatrist confirmed she had no capacity. Prior to moving into a care home at Christmas 2013 she had lived in sheltered accommodation.

On 3 March 2010 MRJ signed both a health and welfare and financial lasting powers of attorney appointing JT (her daughter) and KT (her grandson and JT’s son) jointly and severally. The attorneys applied to register the LPAs and the health and welfare LPA was registered on 11 June 2010.

There were technical defects with the financial LPA wh...

A County Council v MS & anr 11413486

July/August 2014 #141

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...

Re DP, The Public Guardian v JM Case no: 12351387

July/August 2014 #141

DP was born in 1925, was an only child, and had worked for thirty nine years for the BBC World Service at Bush House, the Aldwych, London, WC2. She was the donor of a lasting power of attorney (LPA) in favour of JM which had been registered on 20 February 2012. JM had known DP since 2006 and was formerly her gardener. The public guardian applied for an order under s22(4)b Mental Capacity Act
2005 revoking the LPA.

Held

The only evidence in respect of DP’s capacity came from a visitor, who opined in her report dated 28 March 2013 that DP did not have ...

JS v KB & anr [2014] EWHC 482 (COP)

July/August 2014 #141

The application was made by JS for appointment by the Court of Protection under s19(1) of the MCA 2005 as DB’s deputy in relation to her property and financial affairs. JS was DB’s daughter. KB was DB’s son. MP was a local solicitor appointed to the court as deputy for DB on 13 February 2013. That application was resolved finally, save for the question of costs, by HHJ Hodge QC on 6 September 2013. By order made on that date (which was consensual), it is recorded inter alia that JS agreed not to pursue her application to be appointed as DB’s property and affair...

Re Po; Jo v Go & ors [2013] EWHC 3932 (COP)

March 2014 #137

PO was 88 years of age and lacked capacity to decide where she should live. She had four children, the applicant (JO), and the first, second and third respondents (GO, RO and MP). GO and RO were PO’s attorneys for property and affairs but no power of attorney or deputyship order was extant for welfare decisions.

Until the events giving rise to this application PO was habitually resident in England and Wales, living in her own property in Worcestershire with family and local authority assistance. However, in April 2012, GO moved PO to Scotland, initially to live with him but...

Re Boff 12338771

October 2013 #133

On 9 September 2012, the first respondent (Dr Boff) executed a lasting power of attorney for property and financial affairs, in which she appointed her husband to be her sole attorney, and then attempted to appoint three replacement attorneys in order of succession. Dr Boff’s husband, the second respondent (Mr Boff), executed a virtually identical LPA on the same day and they applied to the Office of the Public Guardian (the OPG) to register the instruments.

On 7 November 2012, the OPG wrote to Dr Boff’s solicitors stating that they were unable to register the LPAs on ...

Re Treadwell (dec’d) [2013] EWHC 2409 (CoP)

October 2013 #133

The public guardian made an application to enforce a security bond of £44,300 in respect of unauthorised gifts made by the late Mrs Joan Treadwell’s deputy for property and financial affairs, Colin Lutz, who was her son from her first marriage. She had five children in total all from her first marriage.

At the age of 58 in 1984 Mrs Treadwell married her third husband William Treadwell, who had two daughters of his own: Joanna Wildgoose and Emma Treadwell.

In 2005 Mrs Treadwell was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease and entered a nursing home. Mr Lutz was ap...