Tolley v No Defendant [2023] WTLR 1187
Autumn 2023 #192Caroline Fisher was an only child and her parents were deceased. In September 2020 she made a will appointing the claimant, her friend, as her executor. In January 2022, she drove into the sea and had not been seen since. The claimant issued a CPR Part 8 claim under the Presumption of Death Act 2013 for a declaration of presumption of death before the will had been proved. Section 1(5) of the 2013 Act provides that the court must refuse to hear the application if:
- (a) it is made by someone other than a missing person’s spouse, civil partne...
Challen v Challen & anor [2020] WTLR 859
Autumn 2020 #180C and Richard Challen (the deceased) were in a relationship for 40 years and had two children (the defendants). Throughout that period the deceased subjected C to sustained coercive control, leaving her in an abnormal psychiatric state. On 15 August 2010 C killed the deceased with a hammer and was convicted of his murder in 2011. In February 2019 that conviction was quashed and the matter remitted for a retrial, and in June 2019 C was convicted upon a guilty plea of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. Under the common law ‘forfeiture rule’ C was precluded from benefiting...
Williams & anr v Russell Price Farm Services Ltd [2020] WTLR 733
Summer 2020 #179The claimants were the executors of the will of Mr Russell Price, who died on 8 March 2020. Mr Price had been the sole shareholder and director of the defendant company. 90% of the shares in the defendant company and the residuary estate were left to the deceased’s daughter, Ms Lucy Price, who had been appointed the defendant company’s secretary on 27 January 2020. The defendant company had carried on a farm-contracting business.
The defendant company’s articles of association incorporated Table A in the schedule to the Companies (Tables A to F) Regulations 1985, Regs 29 ...
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...
Mussell & anr v Patience & anr [2019] WTLR 973
Autumn 2019 #176The Claimants brought a claim as executors of the late Louis Patience, who died in April 1997. They produced accounts setting out the proposed distribution of the deceased’s estate. These accounts were opposed by the Defendants (in their capacity as beneficiaries of the estate).
At trial, HHJ Matthews found that the Defendants’ objections were misconceived, though the Claimants did fail on part of their claim. At the subsequent costs hearing, it was held that the Defendants should pay the Claimants’ costs, though as a result of the Claimants failing on one of the issues, the costs...
Smith-Tyrrell & anr v Bowden [2018] WTLR 987
Autumn 2018 #173The claimants occupied land at Falmouth in Cornwall (the property) initially pursuant to a written agreement for the grant of a 15-year lease from 1 January 1993 at a rent of £400 per annum. The agreement was never signed by the defendant’s parents, who were then the freehold owners, with the result that it did not qualify as a valid agreement for the grant of a tenancy of 15 years, due to failure to comply with the requirements of s2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989. After the expiry of the 15-year period, the claimants continued to pay, and the defendant to ac...
Chaston v Chaston [2018] WTLR 391
Summer 2018 #172The parties were three of the four children of Sybil and John Chaston (‘the parents’). They inherited from their parents a freehold property (‘the Property’). The Property was currently held by the Appellants and the Respondent upon trust for the Respondent as to 50%, and as to 25% for each of the two Appellants.
In proceedings brought under s14 of the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 the District Judge ordered that the Property should be sold to the Respondent at a price to be determined by a valuation exercise.
The hearing before the District Judge ...
McCallum-Toppin & anr v McCallum-Toppin & ors [2018] WTLR 531
Summer 2018 #172A member of the company died in 2006, leaving his shares by his will to be held on trust. In 2007 the first petitioner and one other executor and trustee took out a grant. In 2014 the second executor and trustee was replaced by an order under s.50 Administration of Justice Act 1985.
By a deed dated 14 July 2015 the replacement executor and trustee himself retired as trustee and was replaced by the second petitioner. That deed did not expressly vest any assets in the new trustee, nor was there any evidence before the court that the deceased’s shares had been vested in the ...
Millar & anr v Millar & ors [2018] WTLR 563
Summer 2018 #172By a lifetime settlement dated 7 December 2005 two sisters settled property on trust as to income for their father during his lifetime and as to capital for themselves if living at the end of the trust period, or their issue if not. The trustees also had a power of appointment in favour of a class of beneficiaries which included the settlors.
However, clause 13 provided that “No discretion or power conferred on the Trustees or any other person by this Deed or by law shall be exercised, and no provision of this Deed shall operate directly or indirectly, so as to cause or permit any...