Schumacher v Clarke & ors [2021] WTLR 361
Spring 2021 #182The claimant and the first to third defendants were the executors and trustees of the estate of Dame Zaha Hadid deceased, who died in 2016. The claimant and the first to third defendants had had great difficulty working together in the administration of the deceased’s estate. The claimant brought proceedings under s50 of the Administration of Estates Act 1985 for the removal of the first to third defendants and they counterclaimed seeking equivalent relief against him. By the time of the hearing an agreement had been reached between the claimant and defendant trustees. ...
Y & anr v C & ors [2021] WTLR 391
Spring 2021 #182A claim was made under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (1975 Act) by the mothers of the deceased’s children. The deceased had owned 50% of a private company. That shareholding was valued for probate at £5m. The executors of the deceased’s estate were his sister, who owned the other 50% of the shares and was a director of the company, and a solicitor from the firm which had drafted the deceased’s will, and who was also a director of the private company. The claim under the 1975 Act was upheld against the estate (reported as B v...
Cotterell & anr v Allendale & anr [2020] WTLR 1183
Winter 2020 #181The claimants as trustees of the Allendale 1949 Settlement applied to extend their administrative powers under s57 of the Trustee Act 1925 and the inherent jurisdiction of the court to include a power to re-appropriate assets between the various sub-funds comprised in the settlement, on the ground that they lacked the power under the settlement and it would be expedient for them to have such power in order to effect a certain tax mitigation strategy.
The claimants further applied for other administrative powers which they lacked to be conferred on them, even thou...
Culliford & anr v Thorpe [2020] WTLR 1205
Winter 2020 #181The deceased purchased a property in Weston-super-Mare (the Weston property) in his sole name in 2002 with the aid of a mortgage loan. He met the defendant in early 2010 and by the end of the year the defendant had moved into the Weston property with the deceased and it became his main residence. The defendant undertook repair and decoration jobs around the property, including repairing the boiler and decorating the main bedroom, and undertook work for others in return for work on the property by them. The general outgoings for the property and for the lifestyle of the deceased and the d...
Fantini v Scrutton & ors [2020] WTLR 1273
Winter 2020 #181The claim was brought by the executor of the estate of Iris Mary Fantini. Iris and Gloria Fantini were mother and daughter respectively. They jointly owned a property at 7 Merlin Way, Mudeford, Dorset. Gloria predeceased Iris. The application was brought under Part 64 of the CPR to determine whether the joint tenancy was severed by Gloria and whether Iris’s estate’s costs of the claim should be met from the remaining sale proceeds of the property.
On 5 December 2013 Gloria had executed a will and signed a notice purporting to sever the joint tenancy under s36(2) of the In 1927 a partner (GF) in Barings Brothers & Co (Barings) transferred cash and securities of almost £500,000 (the National Fund) to Barings in anticipation of the execution of a deed of trust by Barings, which was executed on 9 January 1928 (the deed). Other donors, including Lord Dalziel, subsequently made further contributions to the National Fund. By clause 2 of the deed Barings held the National Fund as trustees upon trust to accumulate income and profits until the date fixed by the trustees as being the date when, either alone or together with other funds then available for the ...
By clause 8 of his will the deceased gave the residue of his estate to four institutions in various shares, including a gift in clause 8(a) of a 50% share of his residuary estate to ‘the British Racing Drivers Club Benevolent Fund’ and in clause 8(d) of a 10% share to ‘the Cancer Research Fund’. There was no institution with the name of the British Racing Drivers Club Benevolent Fund. The second defendant, the British Racing Drivers’ Club, was a well-known unincorporated association, but not a registered charity. The only benevolent fund administered by the second defendant was th...
John Robinson Noble (Mr Noble) died in 2014. The plaintiff was his youngest daughter, and the first and second defendants were respectively his eldest daughter and his son. Mr Noble left a will, of which the first defendant was the sole executrix. The will provided that Mr Noble’s estate should be held in trust for such of his children as survived him by 14 days and if more than one then in equal shares. His will expressed the wish that either of his daughters be permitted to live in his dwelling house (the family home) for so long as they require, but making clear that this expression w...
In the course of the claimant’s application as trustee of four discretionary trusts in similar terms governed by English law for the blessing of momentous decisions, AS (the settlor and the original protector of the trusts) died. The trusts had been varied soon after they were declared to expand the powers of the protector to give and withhold consent to the exercise of powers by the trustee. In the absence of a protector the trustee was free to exercise those powers without obtaining a third-party consent. The trusts were administered in Jersey on behalf of the claimant, a profes...
The deceased died on 17 February 2015 as a widower with no children. He left a will dated 22 December 2008. The claimants were his executors. Clause 7 of the will left the residuary estate to ‘such all of my nephew’s and niece’s children’. At the date of his death, the deceased had two blood nephews and two blood nieces, and also three nephews by marriage and one niece by marriage. A further nephew by marriage had died in 1992 leaving a son. The claimants sought directions as to whether the gift was just to the nieces and nephews by blood, or whether it was also to the nieces and ...
H.M. Attorney General v Zedra Fiduciary Services (UK) Ltd & ors [2020] WTLR 1287
Winter 2020 #181Knipe v The British Racing Drivers’ Motor Sport Charity & ors [2020] WTLR 1333
Winter 2020 #181Re Noble [2020] WTLR 1371
Winter 2020 #181PTNZ v AS & ors [2020] WTLR 1423
Winter 2020 #181Re Wales [2020] WTLR 1121
Autumn 2020 #180