Burnden Holdings (UK) Ltd v Fielding & anr [2018] WTLR 379
Summer 2018 #172This appeal arose from an application by the defendants for summary judgment, dismissing the claim on the ground that it was statute-barred. The claim was for (and was for the purposes of the application assumed to have been) an unlawful distribution by the claimant company six years and three days before the issue of the claim form. Although, by the time of the hearing but after permission had been given to appeal, the claimant had amended its claim to include an allegation of fraud, so that there could not be summary judgment, the court considered the issue as to the meaning of s23...
Akita Holdings v Turks and Caicos Islands [2017] UKPC 7
Summer 2017 #168Mr H was a ‘belonger’ (a citizen of the Turks and Caicos Islands) and appointed as a government minister in 2003, remaining in government until 2008. There was a policy entitling a belonger to apply for a conditional purchase lease over Crown Land subject to certain conditions which, if met, entitled the belonger to purchase the freehold title at a discounted rate, in this case of 50% of the open market value.
In 2004, Mr H applied for a lease and in setting the sale price the government relied on a 1998 valuation of the land resulting in a discounted price of $75,200. Unknown to ...
Ilott v The Blue Cross & ors [2017] WTLR 533
Summer 2017 #168The testatrix (T) died in 2004 leaving an adult daughter (C) from whom she had been estranged for 26 years. C had left home aged 17 to live with her boyfriend (B), of whom T disapproved. B later became C’s husband and they had five children. At the time of T’s death, C and her family lived in straitened financial circumstances: they lived in a house rented from a housing association, were reliant on benefits save for the husband’s intermittent work as a supporting actor and could not afford new household equipment or family holidays.
During the lifelong estrangement there had been...
King & anr v Gershon Robertson (St Vincent and the Grenadines) [2014] UKPC 34
June 2015 #150The appeal arose out of a disputed claim to land.
In 1856 or 1857 W, who had been seised of land in fee simple, died. His will set out to leave a life interest in the land to his widow and thereafter to his four named children and after them to five named grandchildren. One of those grandchildren had (at least) two sons, E and B.
The respondent, G, was the grandson of B.
The appellants, K and R, derived their title from the other son E. In 1947, E had made a will asserting that he was the freehold owner of the land, it having devolved upon him as the heir at law of W...
Spread Trustee Company Ltd v Hutcheson & ors [2011] UKPC 13
March 2012 #117Privy Council (Lady Hale, Lord Mance, Lord Kerr, Lord Clarke and Sir Robin Auld)
The respondents made claims for breach of trust against the appellant in respect of breaches that occurred in Guernsey at a time when Guernsey customary law governed the duties of Guernsey trustees and also after the introduction of the Trusts (Guernsey) Law 1989 (the 1989 Law), but before that law was amended by the Trusts (Amendment) (Guernsey) Law 1990 (the 1990 Law). The trust instrument included an exoneration clause in respect of negligence by the trustee and ...
Jones v Kernott [2012] WTLR 125
January/February 2012 #116Patricia Jones and Leonard Kernott bought a property together (Badger Hall Avenue) in May 1985 and lived there until their relationship ended in October 1993. The legal title to Badger Hall Avenue was held by them jointly. Ms Jones had contributed £6,000 of the £30,000 purchase price with the balance funded by an interest-only mortgage. An extension had been built and funded by Mr Kernott and had increased the value of Badger Hall Avenue to £44,000. Ms Jones and Mr Kernott had a daughter (born 1984) and a son (born 1986) together.
It was common ground that, until October 1993, the...