Khan v Mahmood [2021] WTLR 639
Summer 2021 #183In 1997 the respondent and the appellant jointly purchased a property, contributing to the purchase price equally. The appellant and his family occupied the property. In 2007 the respondent was investigated for benefit fraud, and represented to the local authority that he had no beneficial interest in the property, being merely a nominal trustee for the appellant. He repeated that assertion in evidence before the Magistrates’ Court in defence of criminal charges, and later at the First-tier Tribunal in other proceedings. In March 2007 the respondent signed a form TR1 purporting to ...
Rehman v Hamid [2021] WTLR 663
Summer 2021 #183The deceased was born in pre-partition India in 1942, later living in Pakistan. She moved to England in 1965 where she married her husband who was also living in England. In 1986, the couple purchased an English property where they lived until the husband’s death in early 2015. Later in 2015 the deceased returned to Pakistan to live with her nephew. The deceased died in hospital in 2017 three weeks after making her final will which left her estate entirely to her nephew’s son. This was a significant departure from the mirror will she had executed with her husband in 1993, und...
The British University in Dubai v Ebrahimi [2021] WTLR 703
Summer 2021 #183The deceased died on 4 July 2018 leaving a disputed will, dated 3 May 2018, probate of which was granted to the defendant, who together with his wife were the only beneficiaries.
The 2018 will was a holographic one-page will. On one side it bore the signatures of two witnesses who, it was common ground, had witnessed the testator’s signature on 4 May 2018 when not together at the same time and so did not validly attest the will in accordance with s9, Wills Act 1837. On the reverse of the will were two further signatures dated 3 May 2018, belonging to two further wit...
Ware v Ware [2021] WTLR 725
Summer 2021 #183The claimant’s father (the testator) died on 21 October 2003 leaving his half share in the matrimonial home and his residual estate to his wife, the defendant, absolutely. On 4 October 2005 the defendant varied those dispositions by a deed of variation which, for inheritance tax purposes, was read back to the date of the testator’s death. The deed of variation created two trusts: the property trust and the will trust.
The property trust held the testator’s half share in the matrimonial property on trust for the defendant for life, with the remainder to the claima...
Womble Bond Dickinson (Trust Corporation) Ltd & ors v Glenn & ors [2021] WTLR 737
Summer 2021 #183The trustees of a settlement sought directions as to whether they could advance capital to certain beneficiaries pursuant to their powers under s32 Trustee Act 1925, as varied by a clause of the trust deed, so as to bring the trust to an end. They sought a declaration as to whether the proposed advancements were within the power as a matter of construction, (ie whether there were beneficiaries with interests prior to those of the beneficiaries in whose favour the advancements were to be made, whose consent was required), and, presuming that they were within that power, the court...
Clarke-Sullivan v Clarke-Sullivan [2021] WTLR 109
Spring 2021 #182The claimant and the deceased, who both originated from New Zealand, were married. They lived in London from 2006-10 and in Dubai from 2010-15, returning to London before the deceased’s death in 2019.
In 2014, the claimant and the deceased created a discretionary trust under the laws of New Zealand, with New Zealand being the initial forum of administration (the trust). The beneficiaries included the claimant and the deceased, their future issue and organisations that were deemed to be charitable under New Zealand law. The trust was established to hold property intended to be purc...
Gosden & anr v Haliwell Landau & anr [2021] WTLR 205
Spring 2021 #182The claimants brought a claim against the first defendant, a firm of solicitors, and against the second defendant, who was a partner in the first defendant firm, for damages for professional negligence in respect of a tax mitigation scheme known as an Estate Protection Scheme (EPS), by which it was intended that a property (the property) owned by the first claimant’s mother (the deceased) would pass on her death to the first claimant, with substantially less Inheritance Tax (IHT) being payable than if the property had been disposed of by will. The property remained registered in the sole...
Manton & ors v Manton [2021] WTLR 245
Spring 2021 #182The claimants were four of the five trustees of a trust. The defendant was the other trustee. The trust property included the share capital of a holding company (‘the holding company’) which in turn had a wholly owned subsidiary (‘the subsidiary’). A third company (‘the trading company’), the shares of which were also held by the holding company, occupied and traded from premises owned by the subsidiary, to which it paid rent. This, together, with distributions of profits, generated the majority of the income flowing to the trustees. In 2016, a revocable appointment of a life interest ha...
Oberman v Collins & anr [2021] WTLR 267
Spring 2021 #182In consolidated proceedings, the claimant sought a declaration that she was beneficially entitled to 50% of 41 properties on the basis of a common intention constructive trust, a partnership or proprietary estoppel. The claimant also sought relief under ss994 and 996 of the Companies Act 2006 on the grounds of unfair prejudice.
The claimant and the first defendant were in a relationship between 1995 and 2015, moving in together in 1996, and having two children. The second defendant was incorporated on 16 September 1996: 51 shares were issued to the first defendant and two shares w...
Schumacher v Clarke & ors [2021] WTLR 353
Spring 2021 #182The claimant as one of the executors and trustees of the estate of Dame Zaha Hadid deceased, who died in 2016, brought proceedings under s50 of the Administration of Estates Act 1985 for the removal of the first to third defendants, the claimant’s co-executors and co-trustees. The claimant and the first to third defendants had had great difficulty working together in the administration of the deceased’s estate. By the time of the hearing an agreement had been reached between the parties.
Pursuant to that agreement, an employee benefit trust (EBT) was to be declar...